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escape()

files/en-us/web/javascript/reference/global_objects/escape/index.md

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{{Deprecated_Header}}

[!NOTE] escape() is a non-standard function implemented by browsers and was only standardized for cross-engine compatibility. It is not required to be implemented by all JavaScript engines and may not work everywhere. Use {{jsxref("encodeURIComponent()")}} or {{jsxref("encodeURI()")}} if possible.

The escape() function computes a new string in which certain characters have been replaced by hexadecimal escape sequences.

Syntax

js-nolint
escape(str)

Parameters

  • str
    • : A string to be encoded.

Return value

A new string in which certain characters have been escaped.

Description

escape() is a function property of the global object.

The escape() function replaces all characters with escape sequences, with the exception of {{Glossary("ASCII")}} word characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, _) and @\*_+-./. Characters are escaped by UTF-16 code units. If the code unit's value is less than 256, it is represented by a two-digit hexadecimal number in the format %XX, left-padded with 0 if necessary. Otherwise, it is represented by a four-digit hexadecimal number in the format %uXXXX, left-padded with 0 if necessary.

[!NOTE] This function was used mostly for {{Glossary("Percent-encoding", "percent-encoding")}} and is partly based on the escape format in {{rfc(1738)}}. The escape format is not an escape sequence in string literals. You can replace %XX with \xXX and %uXXXX with \uXXXX to get a string containing actual string-literal escape sequences.

Examples

Using escape()

js
escape("abc123"); // "abc123"
escape("äöü"); // "%E4%F6%FC"
escape("ć"); // "%u0107"

// special characters
escape("@*_+-./"); // "@*_+-./"

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also