Strange Javascript error with strings

Question

I'm getting an "unterminated string literal" Javascript error with this code:

var test = '<script type="text/javascript">var s = document.createElement(\'SCRIPT\');</script></div>';

What am I doing wrong here? I'm escaping the single quotes, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. However, this code does work:

var test = 'var s = document.createElement(\'SCRIPT\');</div>';

What would the difference be? I must be missing something here.

I am not getting that error with your code in FireFox, what are you using? — Adam, Jan 14 '11 at 19:01
I don't get any errors when I run that. I tested IE6,7,9 and Firefox 3.6.13. — Chris Haas, Jan 14 '11 at 19:02
See this, it might help: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/227552/common-sources-of-unterminated-string-literal — Rafid, Jan 14 '11 at 19:03
I just tested in the consoles of Chrome and Firefox with no errors. Maybe give us some more context: is this script being included inline or from a separate file? — WorkerThread, Jan 14 '11 at 19:05

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 14 '11 at 19:08

5

Break up that script tag the old-school way

var test = '<scr'+'ipt type="text/javascript">var s = document.createElement(\'SCRIPT\');</scr'+'ipt></div>';

answered Jan 14 '11 at 19:08

Hemlock

5,994
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WTF! Why? It gets confused because of the script tag? – PeeHaa Jan 14 '11 at 19:54
Yep, tries to close the tag early. – Hemlock Jan 14 '11 at 19:59
I had answered similar thing but soon got a down vote. Rather than explaining to **down** voters who down vote before they try something out, I thought it was better to delete the answer. +1 – Sarfraz Jan 15 '11 at 04:55
@Sarfraz I'm sorry. Sometimes SO is really fickle. – Hemlock Jan 15 '11 at 13:25

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '11 at 19:02

0

It looks like a bug in whatever Javascript parser you're using.

Use double quotes as a workaround instead:

var test = '<script type="text/javascript">var s = document.createElement("SCRIPT");</script></div>';

answered Jan 14 '11 at 19:02

Axel Fontaine

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 14 '11 at 19:14

If your script is inline with the rest of the page, you may need to inform the parser that your Javascript code should not be parsed using CDATA.

<script type='text/javascript'>
<![CDATA[
// javascript code goes here, including '<' and '>' characters that could be interpreted as HTML tags
]]>
</script>

Strange Javascript error with strings

3 Answers3