JSON Object creation fails when instantiated with a string with backslashes

Question

I have code, where I instantiate a JSONObject from a string. Upon instantiation, I get a JSONException Illegal escape. Any pointers on how to resolve this ?

Here is the block of code:

@Test
public void testJSONString()
{
    try
    {   
        String str = "{\"path\":\"folderA\\myfileA\"}";
        JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(str);

    } catch (JSONException e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
        fail();
    }

}

The exception I get is:

org.json.JSONException: Illegal escape. at 18 [character 19 line 1]
at org.json.JSONTokener.syntaxError(JSONTokener.java:433)
at org.json.JSONTokener.nextString(JSONTokener.java:289)
at org.json.JSONTokener.nextValue(JSONTokener.java:360)
at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:225)
at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:327)

Seems to be an issue with the \\m there. What would be the right way to escape this ?

Thanks!

possible duplicate of regex: How to escape backslashes and special characters? — Brian Roach
– Brian Roach, Commented Jul 17, 2013 at 23:28

Kevin Bowersox · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-17 23:25:23Z

4

The json should escape the backslashes like \\ so in Java both backslashes need escaped \\\\.

String str = "{\"path\":\"folderA\\\\myfileA\"}";

answered Jul 17, 2013 at 23:25

Kevin Bowersox

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2 Comments

user2475664 Over a year ago

Thanks. That makes it a little tricky now. The string that I have given above comes as part of a web service JSON response. I cannot just do a string replace to replace all \\ with \\\\. since \\n, \\r, \\b, \\t, \\f work, and \\ followed by all other characters dont. So regex might be the solution, and somehow regex and I arent the best of friends :(

Kevin Bowersox Over a year ago

@user2475664 Only sadistic people like regex

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