# Is there a neater way of creating this payload?
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809
**Category:** General
**Created:** [18 December 2023 14:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809 "2023-12-18T14:19:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@questuk](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/questuk)
#### Post date: [18 December 2023 14:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/1 "2023-12-18T14:19:15Z")
Hi
I am creating table in a database, originally it was one long line ,
I wanted to make it clearer to understand as I do not like one long line of text.
I have made a function node with this, it works but is there a better and neater way
As I have lots of commas and pluses ?
```auto
msg.payload =
"CREATE TABLE sensors (" +
"serial_no SERIAL PRIMARY KEY," +
"device TEXT not null," +
"device_data JSON not null );"
return msg;
```
---
### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [18 December 2023 14:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/2 "2023-12-18T14:30:36Z")
You could use a [template string](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Template_literals), as sql statement can be on multiple lines
```auto
msg.payload = `CREATE TABLE sensors (
serial_no SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
device TEXT not null,
device_data JSON not null
);`
```
The quotes are backticks
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [18 December 2023 14:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/3 "2023-12-18T14:50:18Z")
I believe that will generate a mulit-line string with Return characters in it.
@questuk you can do this if you prefer it
```auto
msg.payload = "CREATE TABLE sensors ( \
serial_no SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, \
device TEXT not null, \
device_data JSON not null );"
```
Edit: I see that @E1cid acknowledged that and says that an SQL statement can include embedded return characters. He may well be correct.
---
### Author:  [@questuk](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/questuk)
#### Post date: [18 December 2023 15:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/4 "2023-12-18T15:23:19Z")
Hi, E1cid
Yes that works ... thank you and colin, I thought it should be something like that.
I did have that exact layout of text, but it would fail.
I was using ' ' and not `` very subtle but makes or breaks code 🙂
Thank you both very much for your help, that code will be added to my " cheat sheet " for future reference.
👍
---
### Author:  [@shrickus](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/shrickus)
#### Post date: [19 December 2023 03:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/5 "2023-12-19T03:23:16Z")
I like to use the `template` node for blocks of text like this -- any text you put into the multi-line editor will be added to `msg.payload` with the newlines intact. And since SQL statements can contain newlines, this should just work without using any javascript code.
Please note that this is NOT the `ui_template` node... and if you want to insert incoming msg values into your text, it also support moustache (sic ;\*) syntax like `{{payload.tablename}}`.
---
### Author:  [@questuk](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/questuk)
#### Post date: [19 December 2023 08:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/6 "2023-12-19T08:44:29Z")
Thanks shrickus
That is even better, no back ticks to worry about, I am going to use mustache 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [19 December 2023 10:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/7 "2023-12-19T10:09:26Z")
And you can set the **Syntax Highlight** dropdown to SQL 🕶
---
### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [19 December 2023 12:03 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/8 "2023-12-19T12:03:10Z")
> [@shrickus](#):
>
> support moustache
I for one support all rodent facial hair
---
### Author:  [@shrickus](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/shrickus)
#### Post date: [19 December 2023 14:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/9 "2023-12-19T14:11:20Z")
> [@questuk](#):
>
> no back ticks to worry about
True - what you see is what you get... but if you do use "mustache" syntax to insert data into that DDL string, don't forget to use the triple braces i.e. `{{{payload.tablename}}}` to stop any potential html character encoding!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [17 February 2024 14:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/is-there-a-neater-way-of-creating-this-payload/83809/10 "2024-02-17T14:11:37Z")
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