How to assigning an HTML string to a variable in JavaScript with easily escaping from special characters

Question

I want to assign an HTML string to a JavaScript variable but it gives error because of special characters. Is there any easy way to escape that characters?

What I want to do at my js file:

var messageTemplate = {
   defaultMessageTemplate : "<p>aaaa <b>_username_</b>,</p>
            <p>1sdfasşlğllğlğ.</p>
            <p><b>1 sdfsfsfü şesdfce 12 sfsf.</b></p>
            <p>Üsdfdsfsfsf üyelesfdsdfsdfmsdfdsfdava.</p>
            <p style="font-weight:bold; font-size: 16px;"><a href="/dsfsfs">sfsdfsf Yarasfsdfklayın</a></p>
        <p>Önsdfdsfpıİsdfdfsfn kaçırmayın.</p>
        <br/> <br/>fafaf, <br/>_domain_ Ekssibi</textarea></label></td>"
.... code continues here
};

And how do you assign those characters and what error do you get? — Gumbo, Apr 14 '11 at 18:26

Munzilla · Answer 1 · 2011-04-14T18:29:46.153

2

use the escape function: http://www.devguru.com/technologies/ecmascript/quickref/escape.html

but be warned that this escapes everything. It depends on what you want to do with that html in the variable.

edited Apr 14 '11 at 18:29

answered Apr 14 '11 at 18:24

Munzilla

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 14 '11 at 18:25

2

The escape function or the newer encodeURIComponent.

answered Apr 14 '11 at 18:25

Adam

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`escape` is not a standard function. – Gumbo Apr 14 '11 at 18:26
1

@Gumbo true, but all major browsers support it. That said I agree and recommend `encodeURIComponent` if it is available on the target browsers. – Adam Apr 14 '11 at 18:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

1

You need to escape the " inside the string quoted with " using \":

var messageTemplate = {
   defaultMessageTemplate : "<p>aaaa <b>_username_</b>,</p>
            <p>1sdfasşlğllğlğ.</p>
            <p><b>1 sdfsfsfü şesdfce 12 sfsf.</b></p>
            <p>Üsdfdsfsfsf üyelesfdsdfsdfmsdfdsfdava.</p>
            <p style=\"font-weight:bold; font-size: 16px;\"><a href=\"/dsfsfs\">sfsdfsf Yarasfsdfklayın</a></p>
        <p>Önsdfdsfpıİsdfdfsfn kaçırmayın.</p>
        <br/> <br/>fafaf, <br/>_domain_ Ekssibi</textarea></label></td>"
};

Or use single quotes where you can use " without escaping them (but you would need to escape '):

var messageTemplate = {
   defaultMessageTemplate : '…'
};

And if this JavaScript code is embedded into HTML, you also need to escape the </ somehow.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Community

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answered Apr 14 '11 at 18:27

Gumbo

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I escaped
as \
and didn't escaped
so it looks like works. Do I do anything wrong? – kamaci Apr 14 '11 at 18:57
@kamaci: No, you need to “remove” the literal `` somehow and that only when embedding it into HTML as that’s interpreted as end tag open delimiter of the `SCRIPT` element. – Gumbo Apr 14 '11 at 18:59

How to assigning an HTML string to a variable in JavaScript with easily escaping from special characters

3 Answers3