Free JavaScript String Escaper

How this tool computes its result

Escaping: applies sequential regex replacements to add backslashes: backslash -> double-backslash, newline -> backslash-n, carriage return -> backslash-r, tab -> backslash-t, form feed -> backslash-f, backspace -> backslash-b, double quote -> backslash-double-quote, single quote -> backslash-single-quote. Unescaping: wraps the input string in double quotes, escapes any pre-existing backslashes and quotes to prevent parse errors, then runs JSON.parse() on the wrapped string, which automatically decodes all escape sequences.

Worked example

Escaping 'Hello newline World' produces 'Hello backslash nWorld'. Escaping He said 'Hi' produces He said backslash 'Hi' backslash. Unescaping 'Hello backslash nWorld' (with the literal backslash-n) parses as JSON and produces 'Hello' + newline + 'World'.

When not to use this tool

This escapes JavaScript string literals - it is not appropriate for escaping HTML content (use HTML entity encoding instead), regular expressions (which have different rules), or command-line strings (which have shell-specific escaping).

Common mistakes

• - Confusing JavaScript string escaping with HTML entity escaping - backslash escapes are for JavaScript; HTML uses " and ', not backslashes; pasting HTML-escaped content into this tool will not decode it.
• - Pasting already-escaped content and running unescape - if input is a string with literal backslashes, unescaping it produces the string with backslashes (still unescaped), not with special characters; unescape only decodes one level.
• - Using the unescaped output directly in a template literal - unescaping produces the raw string value; if you want to embed it in a template, you still need to add quotes.

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