How to escape double quotes in JSON

371
votes

I'm trying to show double quotes but it shows one of the backslashes:

"maingame": {
    "day1": {
        "text1": "Tag 1",
        "text2": "Heute startet unsere Rundreise \\\"Example text\\\". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.</strong> "
    }
}

When rendering in the html it shows as \"Example text\". What is the correct way?

7
json

7 Answers

526
votes

Try this:

"maingame": {
  "day1": {
    "text1": "Tag 1",
     "text2": "Heute startet unsere Rundreise \" Example text\". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.</strong> "
  }
}

(just one backslash (\) in front of quotes).

49
votes

When and where to use \\\" instead. OK if you are like me you will feel just as silly as I did when I realized what I was doing after I found this thread.

If you're making a .json text file/stream and importing the data from there then the main stream answer of just one backslash before the double quotes:\" is the one you're looking for.

However if you're like me and you're trying to get the w3schools.com "Tryit Editor" to have a double quotes in the output of the JSON.parse(text), then the one you're looking for is the triple backslash double quotes \\\". This is because you're building your text string within an HTML <script> block, and the first double backslash inserts a single backslash into the string variable then the following backslash double quote inserts the double quote into the string so that the resulting script string contains the \" from the standard answer and the JSON parser will parse this as just the double quotes.

<script>
  var text="{";
  text += '"quip":"\\\"If nobody is listening, then you\'re likely talking to the wrong audience.\\\""';
  text += "}";
  var obj=JSON.parse(text);
</script>

+1: since it's a JavaScript text string, a double backslash double quote \\" would work too; because the double quote does not need escaped within a single quoted string eg '\"' and '"' result in the same JS string.

18
votes

It's showing the backslash because you're also escaping the backslash.

Aside from double quotes, you must also escape backslashes if you want to include one in your JSON quoted string. However if you intend to use a backslash in an escape sequence, obviously you shouldn't escape it.

14
votes

if you want to escape double quote in JSON use \\ to escape it.

example if you want to create json of following javascript object 

{time: '7 "o" clock'}

then you must write in following way

'{"time":"7 \\"o\\" clock"}'

if we parse it using JSON.parse()

JSON.parse('{"time":"7 \\"o\\" clock"}')

result will be 

{time: "7 "o" clock"}
10
votes

Note that this most often occurs when the content has been "double encoded", meaning the encoding algorithm has accidentally been called twice.

The first call would encode the "text2" value:

FROM: Heute startet unsere Rundreise "Example text". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.

TO: Heute startet unsere Rundreise \"Example text\". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.

A second encoding then converts it again, escaping the already escaped characters:

FROM: Heute startet unsere Rundreise \"Example text\". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.

TO: Heute startet unsere Rundreise \\\"Example text\\\". Jeden Tag wird ein neues Reiseziel angesteuert bis wir.

So, if you are responsible for the implementation of the server here, check to make sure there aren't two steps trying to encode the same content.

4
votes

To escape backslashes that cause problems for JSON data I use this function.

//escape backslash to avoid errors
var escapeJSON = function(str) {
    return str.replace(/\\/g,'\\');
};
0
votes

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