Escaping quotes in a javascript string

Question

I'm trying to escape the quotes (and apostrofes and escape char) in a text string in javascript:

var text = 'Escape " and \' and /.';
var rx = new RegExp('/([\'"])/g');
console.log(text, ' ==> ', text.replace(rx,'//\1'));

What I expect to be output is Escape /" and /' and //., but instead I get Escape " and ' and /..

I just can't seem to get this working and don't know what's wrong.

Also, please stop using new RegExp('/([\'"])/g'); Javascript regular expressions are literals, that's like doing new String every time you want to define a string — Benjamin Gruenbaum
– Benjamin Gruenbaum, Commented Jul 4, 2012 at 19:27
@Rob W, because for the format I'm saving, I need / and I explicitely set / in the replacement string. — Martijn
– Martijn, Commented Jul 4, 2012 at 19:29
@Benjamin Grauenbaum: If I use text.replace(/([\'"])/g, '//\1') it doesn't replaces matched characters with empty string. — Martijn
– Martijn, Commented Jul 4, 2012 at 19:31
console.log("Escape ' and \" and /.".replace(/['"/]/g,function(str){return '/'+str})) Works for me — Benjamin Gruenbaum
– Benjamin Gruenbaum, Commented Jul 4, 2012 at 19:33

VisioN · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-04 19:29:00Z

4

Escaping means using backslash \ but not slash /.

However, for your purposes you can try the following:

text.replace(/([/'"])/g, "/$1");

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/hvtgf/1/

answered Jul 4, 2012 at 19:29

VisioN

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2 Comments

Perfect! I guess the JS website I had as reference had the backreference syntax wrong.

@Martijn Hope it was not W3Schools :)