String Escape/Unescape

What is String Escape/Unescape?

String Escape/Unescape converts text between its literal and escaped representations for multiple encoding contexts including JSON, HTML entities, URL percent-encoding, XML, CSV, and C/Java string literals. It handles special characters like newlines, tabs, quotes, backslashes, and non-ASCII Unicode characters, converting them to and from their escaped forms correctly for each target format.

Web developers preventing XSS vulnerabilities, API developers constructing safe request payloads, and data engineers processing text with mixed encodings. The tool runs entirely in your browser — your data never leaves your device.

How to Use String Escape/Unescape

1. Paste the string you want to escape or unescape into the input area
2. Select the target format — JSON, HTML, URL, XML, CSV, or C/Java
3. Choose escape mode to convert special characters or unescape mode to restore them
4. Review the output with changed characters highlighted for easy identification
5. Copy the processed string to use in your code, configuration, or data files

Common Use Cases

• Escaping user input before embedding it in JSON strings for API request bodies
• Unescaping HTML entities like & and ' from web scraping output to get clean text
• Preparing strings with special characters for safe inclusion in SQL queries or log messages
• Converting Unicode escape sequences (like \u00e9) to their actual characters for readability
• Escaping CSV fields that contain commas, quotes, or newlines for proper serialization

Pro Tips

• JSON requires escaping backslash, double quotes, and control characters — a single unescaped backslash in a file path will break JSON parsing
• HTML escaping must convert < > & and quotes to their entity equivalents to prevent XSS attacks — never insert unescaped user input into HTML
• When unescaping, apply the operation only once — double-unescaping can corrupt data if the original content contained literal entity sequences

Why Use This Tool?

• Privacy-first: All processing happens locally in your browser. No data is transmitted to any server.
• No installation required: Works in any modern browser on desktop or mobile.
• Completely free: No account, no credit card, no usage caps.
• Fast and reliable: Powered by modern Web APIs for near-instant results.

Related Concepts

Learn more about related topics: Character encoding, XSS prevention, Unicode escapes, HTML entities.

Frequently Asked Questions