jackc/pgx · error

unterminated quoted string in connection info string

Error message

unterminated quoted string in connection info string

What it means

Returned by parseKeywordValueSettings while parsing a single-quoted value: the closing quote is never found before end-of-string. The parser scans until it runs out of bytes without encountering the terminating ', so the quoted value is unterminated.

Source

Thrown at pgconn/config.go:763

				}
			}
			val = strings.ReplaceAll(strings.ReplaceAll(s[:end], "\\\\", "\\"), "\\'", "'")
			// Consume the value and trim any subsequent whitespace so that
			// multiple trailing spaces don't cause a spurious parse failure.
			s = strings.TrimLeft(s[end:], " \t\n\r\v\f")
		default: // quoted string
			s = s[1:]
			end := 0
			for ; end < len(s); end++ {
				if s[end] == '\'' {
					break
				}
				if s[end] == '\\' {
					end++
				}
			}
			if end == len(s) {
				return nil, errors.New("unterminated quoted string in connection info string")
			}
			val = strings.ReplaceAll(strings.ReplaceAll(s[:end], "\\\\", "\\"), "\\'", "'")
			// Consume the closing quote and any subsequent whitespace.
			s = strings.TrimLeft(s[end+1:], " \t\n\r\v\f")
		}

		key = canonicalConnStringKey(key)

		if key == "" {
			return nil, errors.New("invalid keyword/value")
		}

		if key == "user" && val == "" {
			continue
		}
		settings[key] = val
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to ec1a0befd2)

Solutions

1. Add the missing closing single-quote: "password='secret'".
2. To include a literal quote inside a quoted value, escape it as \' or double it per libpq rules.
3. Prefer passing a URL connection string or building a *ConnConfig to avoid manual quoting.

Example fix

// before
pgx.ParseConfig(`user=app password='secret`)

// after
pgx.ParseConfig(`user=app password='secret'`)

// Ensure every opened single-quote in conninfo is closed.
func validateQuotesBalanced(s string) error {
    inQuote := false
    for i := 0; i < len(s); i++ {
        if s[i] == '\'' {
            inQuote = !inQuote
        }
    }
    if inQuote {
        return errors.New("unterminated quoted string in connection info string")
    }
    return nil
}

if _, err := pgx.ParseConfig(connStr); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unterminated quoted string") {
        return fmt.Errorf("connection string has an unclosed quote: %w", err)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A keyword/value string with an unclosed single-quoted value, e.g. "password='secret" or "dbname='my db". Common when a value contains spaces and the opening quote is added but the closing one is dropped.

Common situations: Building conninfo dynamically and forgetting to close a quote; values with spaces/apostrophes mishandled; shell quoting eating the closing quote.

Related errors

• invalid keyword/value
• invalid backslash
• OAuth authentication required but no token provider configur
• unable to add CA to cert pool

AI-assisted analysis of jackc/pgx@ec1a0befd2 (2026-08-04). Data as JSON: /data/errors/21cd5d3b4cea285b.json. Report an issue: GitHub.