This is a JavaScript library for escaping JavaScript strings while generating the shortest possible valid ASCII-only output. Here’s an online demo.
This can be used to avoid mojibake and other encoding issues, or even to avoid errors when passing JSON-formatted data (which may contain U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR, U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR, or lone surrogates) to a JavaScript parser or an UTF-8 encoder, respectively.
Feel free to fork if you see possible improvements!
Via Bower:
bower install jsesc
Via Component:
component install mathiasbynens/jsesc
Via npm:
npm install jsesc
In a browser:
<script src="jsesc.js"></script>
var jsesc = require('jsesc');
In Narwhal:
var jsesc = require('jsesc').jsesc;
In Rhino:
load('jsesc.js');
Using an AMD loader like RequireJS:
require(
{
'paths': {
'jsesc': 'path/to/jsesc'
}
},
['jsesc'],
function(jsesc) {
console.log(jsesc);
}
);
jsesc(value, options)
This function takes a value and returns an escaped version of the value where any characters that are not printable ASCII symbols are escaped using the shortest possible (but valid) escape sequences for use in JavaScript strings. The first supported value type is strings:
jsesc('Ich ♥ Bücher');
// → 'Ich \\u2665 B\\xFCcher'
jsesc('foo 𝌆 bar');
// → 'foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar'
Instead of a string, the value
can also be an array, or an object. In such cases, jsesc
will return a stringified version of the value where any characters that are not printable ASCII symbols are escaped in the same way.
// Escaping an array
jsesc([
'Ich ♥ Bücher', 'foo 𝌆 bar'
]);
// → '[\'Ich \\u2665 B\\xFCcher\',\'foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar\']'
// Escaping an object
jsesc({
'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar'
});
// → '{\'Ich \\u2665 B\\xFCcher\':\'foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar\'}'
The optional options
argument accepts an object with the following options:
quotes
The default value for the quotes
option is 'single'
. This means that any occurences of '
in the input string will be escaped as \'
, so that the output can be used in a string literal wrapped in single quotes.
jsesc('Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \'amet\' etc.');
// → 'Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \\\'amet\\\' etc.'
jsesc('Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \'amet\' etc.', {
'quotes': 'single'
});
// → 'Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \\\'amet\\\' etc.'
// → "Lorem ipsum \"dolor\" sit \\'amet\\' etc."
If you want to use the output as part of a string literal wrapped in double quotes, set the quotes
option to 'double'
.
jsesc('Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \'amet\' etc.', {
'quotes': 'double'
});
// → 'Lorem ipsum \\"dolor\\" sit \'amet\' etc.'
// → "Lorem ipsum \\\"dolor\\\" sit 'amet' etc."
This setting also affects the output for arrays and objects:
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'quotes': 'double'
});
// → '{"Ich \\u2665 B\\xFCcher":"foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar"}'
jsesc([ 'Ich ♥ Bücher', 'foo 𝌆 bar' ], {
'quotes': 'double'
});
// → '["Ich \\u2665 B\\xFCcher","foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar"]'
wrap
The wrap
option takes a boolean value (true
or false
), and defaults to false
(disabled). When enabled, the output will be a valid JavaScript string literal wrapped in quotes. The type of quotes can be specified through the quotes
setting.
jsesc('Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \'amet\' etc.', {
'quotes': 'single',
'wrap': true
});
// → '\'Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \\\'amet\\\' etc.\''
// → "\'Lorem ipsum \"dolor\" sit \\\'amet\\\' etc.\'"
jsesc('Lorem ipsum "dolor" sit \'amet\' etc.', {
'quotes': 'double',
'wrap': true
});
// → '"Lorem ipsum \\"dolor\\" sit \'amet\' etc."'
// → "\"Lorem ipsum \\\"dolor\\\" sit \'amet\' etc.\""
es6
The es6
option takes a boolean value (true
or false
), and defaults to false
(disabled). When enabled, any astral Unicode symbols in the input will be escaped using ECMAScript 6 Unicode code point escape sequences instead of using separate escape sequences for each surrogate half. If backwards compatibility with ES5 environments is a concern, don’t enable this setting. If the json
setting is enabled, the value for the es6
setting is ignored (as if it was false
).
// By default, the `es6` option is disabled:
jsesc('foo 𝌆 bar 💩 baz');
// → 'foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar \\uD83D\\uDCA9 baz'
// To explicitly disable it:
jsesc('foo 𝌆 bar 💩 baz', {
'es6': false
});
// → 'foo \\uD834\\uDF06 bar \\uD83D\\uDCA9 baz'
// To enable it:
jsesc('foo 𝌆 bar 💩 baz', {
'es6': true
});
// → 'foo \\u{1D306} bar \\u{1F4A9} baz'
escapeEverything
The escapeEverything
option takes a boolean value (true
or false
), and defaults to false
(disabled). When enabled, all the symbols in the output will be escaped, even printable ASCII symbols.
jsesc('lolwat"foo\'bar', {
'escapeEverything': true
});
// → '\\x6C\\x6F\\x6C\\x77\\x61\\x74\\"\\x66\\x6F\\x6F\\\'\\x62\\x61\\x72'
// → "\\x6C\\x6F\\x6C\\x77\\x61\\x74\\\"\\x66\\x6F\\x6F\\'\\x62\\x61\\x72"
This setting also affects the output for arrays and objects:
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'escapeEverything': true
});
// → '{\'\x49\x63\x68\x20\u2665\x20\x42\xFC\x63\x68\x65\x72\':\'\x66\x6F\x6F\x20\uD834\uDF06\x20\x62\x61\x72\'}'
// → "{'\x49\x63\x68\x20\u2665\x20\x42\xFC\x63\x68\x65\x72':'\x66\x6F\x6F\x20\uD834\uDF06\x20\x62\x61\x72'}"
jsesc([ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' ], {
'escapeEverything': true
});
// → '[\'\x49\x63\x68\x20\u2665\x20\x42\xFC\x63\x68\x65\x72\',\'\x66\x6F\x6F\x20\uD834\uDF06\x20\x62\x61\x72\']'
compact
The compact
option takes a boolean value (true
or false
), and defaults to true
(enabled). When enabled, the output for arrays and objects will be as compact as possible; it won’t be formatted nicely.
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'compact': true // this is the default
});
// → '{\'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\':\'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'}'
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'compact': false
});
// → '{\n\t\'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\': \'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'\n}'
jsesc([ 'Ich ♥ Bücher', 'foo 𝌆 bar' ], {
'compact': false
});
// → '[\n\t\'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\',\n\t\'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'\n]'
This setting has no effect on the output for strings.
indent
The indent
option takes a string value, and defaults to '\t'
. When the compact
setting is enabled (true
), the value of the indent
option is used to format the output for arrays and objects.
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'compact': false,
'indent': '\t' // this is the default
});
// → '{\n\t\'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\': \'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'\n}'
jsesc({ 'Ich ♥ Bücher': 'foo 𝌆 bar' }, {
'compact': false,
'indent': ' '
});
// → '{\n \'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\': \'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'\n}'
jsesc([ 'Ich ♥ Bücher', 'foo 𝌆 bar' ], {
'compact': false,
'indent': ' '
});
// → '[\n \'Ich \u2665 B\xFCcher\',\n\ t\'foo \uD834\uDF06 bar\'\n]'
This setting has no effect on the output for strings.
json
The json
option takes a boolean value (true
or false
), and defaults to false
(disabled). When enabled, the output is valid JSON. Hexadecimal character escape sequences and the \v
or \0
escape sequences will not be used. Setting json: true
implies quotes: 'double', wrap: true, es6: false
, although these values can still be overridden if needed — but in such cases, the output won’t be valid JSON anymore.
jsesc('foo\x00bar\xFF\uFFFDbaz', {
'json': true
});
// → '"foo\\u0000bar\\u00FF\\uFFFDbaz"'
jsesc({ 'foo\x00bar\xFF\uFFFDbaz': 'foo\x00bar\xFF\uFFFDbaz' }, {
'json': true
});
// → '{"foo\\u0000bar\\u00FF\\uFFFDbaz":"foo\\u0000bar\\u00FF\\uFFFDbaz"}'
jsesc([ 'foo\x00bar\xFF\uFFFDbaz', 'foo\x00bar\xFF\uFFFDbaz' ], {
'json': true
});
// → '["foo\\u0000bar\\u00FF\\uFFFDbaz","foo\\u0000bar\\u00FF\\uFFFDbaz"]'
// Values that are acceptable in JSON but aren’t strings, arrays, or object
// literals can’t be escaped, so they’ll just be preserved:
jsesc([ 'foo\x00bar', [1, '©', { 'foo': true, 'qux': null }], 42 ], {
'json': true
});
// → '["foo\\u0000bar",[1,"\\u00A9",{"foo":true,"qux":null}],42]'
// Values that aren’t allowed in JSON are run through `JSON.stringify()`:
jsesc([ undefined, -Infinity ], {
'json': true
});
// → '[null,null]'
Note: Using this option on objects or arrays that contain non-string values relies on JSON.stringify()
. For legacy environments like IE ≤ 7, use a JSON
polyfill.
jsesc.version
A string representing the semantic version number.
jsesc
binaryTo use the jsesc
binary in your shell, simply install jsesc globally using npm:
npm install -g jsesc
After that you will be able to escape strings from the command line:
$ jsesc 'föo ♥ bår 𝌆 baz'
f\xF6o \u2665 b\xE5r \uD834\uDF06 baz
To escape arrays or objects containing string values, use the -o
/--object
option:
$ jsesc --object '{ "föo": "♥", "bår": "𝌆 baz" }'
{'f\xF6o':'\u2665','b\xE5r':'\uD834\uDF06 baz'}
To prettify the output in such cases, use the -p
/--pretty
option:
$ jsesc --pretty '{ "föo": "♥", "bår": "𝌆 baz" }'
{
'f\xF6o': '\u2665',
'b\xE5r': '\uD834\uDF06 baz'
}
For valid JSON output, use the -j
/--json
option:
$ jsesc --json --pretty '{ "föo": "♥", "bår": "𝌆 baz" }'
{
"f\u00F6o": "\u2665",
"b\u00E5r": "\uD834\uDF06 baz"
}
Read a local JSON file, escape any non-ASCII symbols, and save the result to a new file:
$ jsesc --json --object < data-raw.json > data-escaped.json
Or do the same with an online JSON file:
$ curl -sL "http://git.io/aorKgQ" | jsesc --json --object > data-escaped.json
See jsesc --help
for the full list of options.
This library has been tested in at least Chrome 27-29, Firefox 3-22, Safari 4-6, Opera 10-12, IE 6-10, Node.js v0.10.0, Narwhal 0.3.2, RingoJS 0.8-0.9, PhantomJS 1.9.0, and Rhino 1.7RC4.
Note: Using the json
option on objects or arrays that contain non-string values relies on JSON.parse()
. For legacy environments like IE ≤ 7, use a JSON
polyfill.
After cloning this repository, run npm install
to install the dependencies needed for development and testing. You may want to install Istanbul globally using npm install istanbul -g
.
Once that’s done, you can run the unit tests in Node using npm test
or node tests/tests.js
. To run the tests in Rhino, Ringo, Narwhal, and web browsers as well, use grunt test
.
To generate the code coverage report, use grunt cover
.
Mathias Bynens |
This library is available under the MIT license.