JavaScript Escape and Unescape

What this JavaScript escape and unescape tool does

This tool converts raw text into JavaScript string escape notation, and converts JavaScript escape notation back into decoded text. It is designed for string content: the characters that would appear inside quotes or backticks. It does not execute JavaScript, parse complete programs, evaluate variables, combine string concatenations or run template expressions.

Common JavaScript escape sequences

Escaping double-quoted strings

In a double-quoted string, the double quote, backslash and control characters need escaping. A single quote can remain literal. With delimiters disabled, the output is only the escaped content. With delimiters enabled, the output is wrapped in quotation marks.

Escaping single-quoted strings

Single-quoted strings escape the single quote, backslash and control characters. Double quotes can remain literal. Choose this context when the escaped content will be placed between apostrophes in JavaScript source.

Escaping template literals

Template literals use backticks and support ${...} interpolation. This tool escapes backticks, backslashes and interpolation starts so raw input such as Hello ${name} becomes Hello \${name}. Ordinary dollar signs are preserved.

Unicode escapes in JavaScript

JavaScript supports \u00E9 for one UTF-16 code unit, \u{1F600} for one Unicode code point, and legacy surrogate-pair notation such as \uD83D\uDE00 for emoji. The tool validates surrogate pairs when unescaping and can generate either legacy or code-point escape style when escaping non-ASCII text.

JavaScript strings vs JSON strings

JavaScript string syntax supports forms that JSON does not, including single-quoted strings, template literals, \v, \xHH and \u{...}. For strict JSON string escaping, use JSON Escape and Unescape.

Safe unescaping without eval

Unescape mode uses a dedicated parser for supported escape sequences. It never calls eval(), never creates script elements and never executes input. The parser decodes one syntax layer only, so \\n becomes a literal backslash plus n rather than being recursively decoded into a line break.

Invalid escape sequences

Trailing backslashes, malformed \x escapes, incomplete \u escapes, out-of-range code points and isolated surrogate halves are reported as errors. Malformed escape syntax is not silently preserved in strict mode.

Escaping is not sanitization

JavaScript string escaping does not make text safe for HTML, SQL, URLs, shell commands, CSS, template systems or DOM insertion. Use the correct escaping or encoding for the final context.

Unicode normalization

Normalization is separate from escaping and is off by default. If enabled in Escape mode, normalization is applied before escape sequences are generated and may change the Unicode code-point sequence.

How to use the tool

Choose Escape when you have raw text and need JavaScript string content. Select the string context first: double-quoted, single-quoted, template literal or raw escape notation. Then decide whether the output should include surrounding delimiters. The default keeps delimiters off, which is useful when you only need the content that will be placed inside an existing string literal.

Choose Unescape when you have escape notation such as \n, \x41, \u00E9 or \u{1F600}. The parser decodes one layer of supported string escapes and reports malformed syntax instead of guessing. If you are working with JSON, use the JSON tool because JSON does not allow several JavaScript-specific escape forms.

Use the Unicode character handling selector when you need non-ASCII characters preserved, converted to legacy UTF-16 escapes, or represented with modern code-point escapes. Use output as input only when you intentionally want to run another pass with the current settings.

Privacy and processing

This tool runs in your browser. Your input is not submitted to UnicodeNow, inserted into URLs, saved to localStorage or sessionStorage, or sent through analytics by this page.

Common uses

• Preparing string literal content.
• Escaping quotes and backslashes.
• Debugging copied JavaScript strings.
• Decoding \uXXXX.
• Converting emoji to JavaScript escapes.
• Testing surrogate pairs.
• Escaping template-literal interpolation.
• Comparing JavaScript and JSON escaping.

Example

Input text:

Line 1
Line 2 "UnicodeNow"
C:\Tools
😀

Output for a double-quoted JavaScript string with code-point escapes:

Line 1\nLine 2 \"UnicodeNow\"\nC:\\Tools\n\u{1F600}

The output is escaped string content. Enable “Include surrounding delimiters” to generate a complete quoted string literal.

Template-literal input:

Hello ${name}

Output:

Hello \${name}

Frequently asked questions