diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 7bd917d21..cd1baa565 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -6741,6 +6741,8 @@ bool Tokenizer::simplifyKnownVariablesSimplify(Token **tok2, Token *tok3, unsign
             Token::Match(tok3, ("<<|>> " + structname + " %varid% [+-*/%^|;])]").c_str(), varid) ||
             Token::Match(tok3->previous(), ("[=+-*/%^|[] ( " + structname + " %varid%").c_str(), varid))
         {
+            if (value[0] == '\"')
+                break;
             if (!structname.empty())
             {
                 tok3->deleteNext();
@@ -6857,13 +6859,14 @@ bool Tokenizer::simplifyKnownVariablesSimplify(Token **tok2, Token *tok3, unsign
 
         // return variable..
         if (Token::Match(tok3, "return %varid% %any%", varid) &&
-            isOp(tok3->tokAt(2)))
+            isOp(tok3->tokAt(2)) &&
+            value[0] != '\"')
         {
             tok3->next()->str(value);
             tok3->next()->varId(valueVarId);
         }
 
-        else if (pointeralias && Token::Match(tok3, "return * %varid% ;", varid))
+        else if (pointeralias && Token::Match(tok3, "return * %varid% ;", varid) && value[0] != '\"')
         {
             tok3->deleteNext();
             tok3->next()->str(value);
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index 72763bc01..04697796f 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -2080,6 +2080,18 @@ private:
                                     "}";
             ASSERT_EQUALS(expected, tokenizeAndStringify(code, true));
         }
+
+        {
+            const char code[] = "void f(char *p, char *q) {"
+                                "    strcpy(p, \"abc\");"
+                                "    q = p;"
+                                "}";
+            const char expected[] = "void f ( char * p , char * q ) {"
+                                    " strcpy ( p , \"abc\" ) ;"
+                                    " q = p ; "
+                                    "}";
+            ASSERT_EQUALS(expected, tokenizeAndStringify(code, true));
+        }
     }
 
     void simplifyKnownVariablesBailOutAssign()