The parentheses are used as delimeters so that you can use quotes in the literal. string test = R"(the Star Trek catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty" did not app

The parentheses are used as delimeters so that you can use quotes in the literal. string test = R"(the Star Trek catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty" did not appear)"; If you want to use quotes in the string, you can add up to 16 chars to the delimiter, but you still have to use the parentheses. string test = R"[de=limiter!(the (Star Trek) catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty" did not appear)[de=limiter!";