Print a JavaScript string as a string literal

Question

I am attempting to print a string as a string literal in JavaScript, so that the string will be printed exactly as it is written:

printStringLiteral("\n\nHi!");//this prints "Hi!" instead of "\n\nHi!".
                              //What will I need to do in order to print
                              //the string as a string literal instead?

function printStringLiteral(toPrint){
    console.log("\"" toPrint + "\"");
}

It's likely that I'd only need to put an escape character (`\`) before each character in the string - however, I haven't tested this solution yet. — Anderson Green
– Anderson Green, Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 0:36
No, if you had the string "no" and did that then the first character would be turned into a new line escape sequence. — Quentin
– Quentin, Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 0:37
I don't think there is a way to convert a string back to its literal representation. A string is a sequence of Unicode code points, how would you know how the code was created (e.g. \n or \u000A)? — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 0:41

gilly3 · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-26 00:44:59Z

7

You can use JSON:

JSON.stringify(toPrint);

answered Jan 26, 2013 at 0:44

gilly3

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6 Comments

Anderson Green Over a year ago

I was about to post this as an answer, but you beat me to it. :)

Anderson Green Over a year ago

Here's an example on jsfiddle (and it works as intended!) jsfiddle.net/jarble/x2mSt/1

Felix Kling Over a year ago

I was just thinking about that, but it does not necessarily convert the string back to its literal form. E.g. "\n\nHi!\u000A" becomes "\n\nHi!\n".

gilly3 Over a year ago

@FelixKling - Good point. If you want the actual source code, you'd have to do an AJAX request for it.

Barmar Over a year ago

Those are equivalent string literals. Information is lost when the source code is parsed, so you can't expect any better than that.

|

Erick Ribeiro · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-26 00:37:50Z

0

printStringLiteral("\\\n\\\nHi!");

function printStringLiteral(toPrint){
    console.log("\\\"" + toPrint + "\\\"");
}

answered Jan 26, 2013 at 0:37

Erick Ribeiro

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2 Comments

Anderson Green Over a year ago

The output of this function isn't correct - see here: jsfiddle.net/jarble/V6brF/2

Ken Wayne VanderLinde Over a year ago

This answer require the original string to escape it's `` chars, which is not what the OP asks.

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