Replace all double quotes within String

Question

I am retrieving data from a database, where the field contains a String with HTML data. I want to replace all of the double quotes such that it can be used for parseJSON of jQuery.

Using Java, I am trying to replace the quotes using..

details.replaceAll("\"","\\\"");
  //details.replaceAll("\"","&quote;"); details.replaceAll("\"","&#34");

The resultant string doesn't show the desired change. An O'Reilly article prescribes using Apache string utils. Is there any other way??

Is there a regex or something that I could use?

aioobe · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-19 12:19:53Z

110

Here's how

String details = "Hello \"world\"!";
details = details.replace("\"","\\\"");
System.out.println(details);               // Hello \"world\"!

Note that strings are immutable, thus it is not sufficient to simply do details.replace("\"","\\\""). You must reassign the variable details to the resulting string.

Using

details = details.replaceAll("\"","&quote;");

instead, results in

Hello &quote;world&quote;!

edited Mar 19, 2011 at 12:19

answered Mar 19, 2011 at 12:14

aioobe

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1 Comment

MalTec Over a year ago

my string would be like: ABC <a href="fsgdfs"><div id="id1">df</div> ... I want to remove the quotes just to ensure that it gets parsed by JSON. So &quote; might be a btr way for HTML, was the thought.

Alan Moore · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 02:53:53Z

38

Would not that have to be:

.replaceAll("\"","\\\\\"")

FIVE backslashes in the replacement String.

edited Dec 6, 2011 at 2:53

Alan Moore

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answered Dec 6, 2011 at 0:16

mikhailgarber

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5 Comments

Alan Moore Over a year ago

Yes, if you were to use replaceAll(), that would be the correct way. That's why everyone is saying to use replace() instead. ;)

Ben Over a year ago

Just spent the better part of an hour figuring out why my replaceAll() wasn't working. Totally forgot that there was a replace() method too.

Ida Over a year ago

Why 3 backslashes using replace() but 5 backslashes using replaceAll()?

vinay Over a year ago

I think the answer is in the method signature. replace method in this case is actually replace(CharSequence cs, CharSequence cs1) and replaceAll is replaceAll(String string, String string1). To pass String as parameter you need those extra backslashes.

aioobe Over a year ago

@vinay no, it's because replaceAll takes a regular expression while replace takes a plain string.

anon · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-19 12:13:44Z

10

I think a regex is a little bit of an overkill in this situation. If you just want to remove all the quotes in your string I would use this code:

details = details.replace("\"", "");

answered Mar 19, 2011 at 12:13

anon

Comments

Mike Samuel · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-19 12:20:49Z

6

To make it work in JSON, you need to escape a few more character than that.

myString.replace("\\", "\\\\")
    .replace("\"", "\\\"")
    .replace("\r", "\\r")
    .replace("\n", "\\n")

and if you want to be able to use json2.js to parse it then you also need to escape

   .replace("\u2028", "\\u2028")
   .replace("\u2029", "\\u2029")

which JSON allows inside quoted strings, but which JavaScript does not.

answered Mar 19, 2011 at 12:20

Mike Samuel

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2 Comments

MalTec Over a year ago

I am using jquery 1.5.. Do i require this all?

Mike Samuel Over a year ago

@MalTec, If your string can contain backslashes, then yes. Consider if your string is '\\"'. If you wrap it in quotes and only escape the quotes, then you get "\\"" which is an invalid string. If your string can contain newlines, then you need to escape those as well. Newlines are not allowed inside strings in JQuery.

Shrikant Ballal · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-05 14:05:31Z

3

I know the answer is already accepted here, but I just wanted to share what I found when I tried to escape double quotes and single quotes.

Here's what I have done: and this works :)

to escape double quotes:

    if(string.contains("\"")) {
        string = string.replaceAll("\"", "\\\\\"");
    }

and to escape single quotes:

    if(string.contains("\'")) {
        string = string.replaceAll("\'", "\\\\'");
    }

PS: Please note the number of backslashes used above.

answered Mar 5, 2013 at 14:05

Shrikant Ballal

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2 Comments

user1169587 Over a year ago

why need five backslash for replaceAll to esacpe double quotes? what is the function of each backslash?

user1169587 Over a year ago

I found string = string.replaceAll("\"",""); already work, output string already remove all double quotes

priti negi · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-07 05:35:28Z

1

String info = "Hello \"world\"!";
info = info.replace("\"", "\\\"");

String info1 = "Hello "world!";
info1 = info1.replace('"', '\"').replace("\"", "\\\"");

For the 2nd field info1, 1st replace double quotes with an escape character.

edited May 7, 2020 at 5:35

answered May 7, 2020 at 5:29

priti negi

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Comments

Lakshmana Kumar D · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-23 11:54:54Z

0

This is to remove double quotes in a string.

str1 = str.replace(/"/g, "");
alert(str1);

answered Jul 23, 2013 at 11:54

Lakshmana Kumar D

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1 Comment

Matthew Jacobs Over a year ago

OP wanted an answer for Java.

davidrac · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-31 07:08:01Z

0

The following regex will work for both:

  text = text.replaceAll("('|\")", "\\\\$1");

edited Oct 31, 2015 at 7:08

davidrac

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answered Oct 31, 2015 at 1:54

elxala

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Comments

Shohabbos Usmonov · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-07 12:26:58Z

-1

If you cannot solve the problem with only \* or \* increase the number of backslashes to 5 such as \\" and this will solve your problem

answered Sep 7, 2022 at 12:26

Shohabbos Usmonov

1

1 Comment

Gayan Kavirathne Over a year ago

Welcome to stackoverflow. Thank you for attempting to help. But, having duplicate answers make it harder to find the answers. The same thing is expressed by other, in programmatically ways.

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