st: Do compound double quotes fail, and if so, what is best to do?

["David Elliott" <dcelliott@gmail.com>]

I have a situation where I am evaluating a line of log file text using:

       if  substr(`"`line'"',1,6)=="(file " {

I have found this can choke when `line' contains multiple mixed macro
quote characters giving a "too few quotes: error.

I am currently working around this with:

       if  substr(`"`macval(line)'"',1,6)=="(file " {

which processes `line' without any internal macro expansion,
effectively leaving it as is.  My question is, "is this the proper or
most efficient way to handle this, or are there alternatives?"  Do I
need to have compound double quotes in addition to using macval()?

Many thanks.

DCE
--
David Elliott
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