How to escape ^ character in javascript?

Question

For a message in a specific message format (HL7) I'm trying to escape the ^ sign. So the string abc^def^ghi should become abc\^def\^ghi

I tried the following ways:

> "abc^def^ghi".replace("^", "\^");
'abc^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace("^", "\\^");
'abc\\^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace("^", "\\\^");
'abc\\^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace("\^", "\\\^");
'abc\\^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace("\\^", "\\\^");
'abc^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace(/^/g, "\\\^");
'\\^abc^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace(/\^/g, "\\\^");
'abc\\^def\\^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace(/\^/g, "\\^");
'abc\\^def\\^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace(/\^/g, "\^");
'abc^def^ghi'
> "abc^def^ghi".replace(/\\^/g, "\\\^");
'abc^def^ghi'

As you can see, none of them work as I want them to. Does anybody know how I can do this?

You already have it `"abc^def^ghi".replace(/\^/g, "\\^");` but showing incorrect output. — anubhava, Jul 12 '17 at 17:02
@anubhava! I used the node repl in the terminal, but I now see it does give the right output in the Chromium console. Thanks for pointing this out! — kramer65, Jul 12 '17 at 17:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 12 '17 at 17:00

2

"abc^def^ghi".replace(/\^/g, "\\\^")

You have to escape ^ in the regex, because it's a special character.

answered Jul 12 '17 at 17:00

Andy Ray

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How to escape ^ character in javascript?

1 Answers1