How to encode ' character in Javascript?

Question

I have:

function showMessage(message) {
    alert(message);
}

But when the message comes dynamically from the server as(example): "Men's" it doesn't work.

I've tried:

function myEncode(message) {
    return message.replace("'", "\'");
}

showMessage(myEncode(message));

Doesn't seem to work. This is a simple example, the actual code is more complicated, but essentially this is the issue.

I assume your problem is that your server-generated code results in something like showMessage(myEncode('Men's'))? So your JavaScript is already broken at that point - so trying to replace something in JavaScript if you already have a JS syntax error is of course pointless (D'oh!). Do the escaping in your server-side code before you output that value as a JS string value. — C3roe
– C3roe, Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 9:07
Can't you fix it on the server? That would be more logical I think, than patching it in JavaScript. Why not use something that both your server and client can understand, such as JSON? This doesn't seem like the right approach... — elclanrs
– elclanrs, Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 9:12

Danny Beckett · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-27 09:03:51Z

1

You should specify the g parameter, for a global replace (not only the first match).

You should also escape the slash:

function myEncode(message) {
    return message.replace(/'/g, "\\'");
}

answered Jun 27, 2013 at 9:03

Danny Beckett

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1 Comment

this just replaces ' by ' you need to write "\\'"