Use regular expression inside replace method to escape string in JavaScript.
Escape string for use in JavaScript regex
HTML example code URL escape suing regex in JavaScript replace method.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script>
function escapeRegExp(input) {
const source = typeof input === 'string' || input instanceof String ? input : '';
return source.replace(/[-[/\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, '\\$&');
}
console.log(escapeRegExp("https://tutorial.eyehunts.com/"));
</script>
</body>
</html>Output:
Another function
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script>
var escapeRegExp;
(function () {
// Referring to the table here:
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/regexp
// these characters should be escaped
// \ ^ $ * + ? . ( ) | { } [ ]
// These characters only have special meaning inside of brackets
// they do not need to be escaped, but they MAY be escaped
// without any adverse effects (to the best of my knowledge and casual testing)
// : ! , =
// my test "~!@#$%^&*(){}[]`/=?+\|-_;:'\",<.>".match(/[\#]/g)
var specials = [
// order matters for these
"-"
, "["
, "]"
// order doesn't matter for any of these
, "/"
, "{"
, "}"
, "("
, ")"
, "*"
, "+"
, "?"
, "."
, "\\"
, "^"
, "$"
, "|"
]
// I choose to escape every character with '\'
// even though only some strictly require it when inside of []
, regex = RegExp('[' + specials.join('\\') + ']', 'g')
;
escapeRegExp = function (str) {
return str.replace(regex, "\\$&");
};
}());
console.log(escapeRegExp("/path/to/res?search=this.that"));
</script>
</body>
</html>Do comment if you have any doubts or suggestions on this JS escape topic.
Note: The All JS Examples codes are tested on the Firefox browser and the Chrome browser.
OS: Windows 10
Code: HTML 5 Version