Develop Reference

Why the .replace() and toUppercase() did not work in the second function? [duplicate]

I want to replace the smart quotes like ‘, ’, “ and ” to regular quotes. Also, I wanted to replace the ©, ® and ™. I used the following code. But it doesn't help.
Kindly help me to resolve this issue.
str.replace(/[“”]/g, '"');
str.replace(/[‘’]/g, "'");

Use:
str = str.replace(/[“”]/g, '"');
str = str.replace(/[‘’]/g, "'");
or to do it in one statement:
str = str.replace(/[“”]/g, '"').replace(/[‘’]/g,"'");
In JavaScript (as in many other languages) strings are immutable - string "replacement" methods actually just return the new string instead of modifying the string in place.
The MDN JavaScript reference entry for replace states:
Returns a new string with some or all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement.
…
This method does not change the String object it is called on. It simply returns a new string.

replace return the resulting string
str = str.replace(/["']/, '');

The OP doesn't say why it isn't working, but there seems to be problems related to the encoding of the file. If I have an ANSI encoded file and I do:
var s = "“This is a test” ‘Another test’";
s = s.replace(/[“”]/g, '"').replace(/[‘’]/g,"'");
document.writeln(s);
I get:
"This is a test" "Another test"
I converted the encoding to UTF-8, fixed the smart quotes (which broke when I changed encoding), then converted back to ANSI and the problem went away.
Note that when I copied and pasted the double and single smart quotes off this page into my test document (ANSI encoded) and ran this code:
var s = "“This is a test” ‘Another test’";
for (var i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
document.writeln(s.charAt(i) + '=' + s.charCodeAt(i));
}
I discovered that all the smart quotes showed up as ? = 63.
So, to the OP, determine where the smart quotes are originating and make sure they are the character codes you expect them to be. If they are not, consider changing the encoding of the source so they arrive as “ = 8220, ” = 8221, ‘ = 8216 and ’ = 8217. Use my loop to examine the source, if the smart quotes are showing up with any charCodeAt() values other than those I've listed, replace() will not work as written.

To replace all regular quotes with smart quotes, I am using a similar function. You must specify the CharCode as some different computers/browsers default settings may identify the plain characters differently ("",",',').
Using the CharCode with call the ASCII character, which will eliminate the room for error across different browsers, and operating systems. This is also helpful for bilingual use (accents, etc.).
To replace smart quotes with SINGLE QUOTES
function unSmartQuotify(n){
var name = n;
var apos = String.fromCharCode(39);
while (n.indexOf("'") > -1)
name = name.replace("'" , apos);
return name;
}
To find the other ASCII values you may need. Check here.

Escaping backslash in a string containing backslash

I have a string containing I\u2019m (with backslashes not escaped)
var myString = 'I\\u2019m'; // I\u2019m
But then I need a function that 'escape backslashes' that string, so the function I'm looking for would return I'm
backslashString(myString); // I'm
I've tried using eval:
function backslashString(input){
input = input.replace(/'/g, "\\'"); // Replace ' with \' that's going to mess up eval
return eval(`'${input}'`);
}
But is there a proper way of doing it? I'm looking for a function that escape backslashes a string containing I\u2019m to I'm and also handles if there's an extra backslash (A lost \ backslash)
EDIT:
I did not ask what I meant from the start. This not only applies to unicode characters, but applies to all backslash characters including \n

The backslashes aren’t the real problem here - the real problem is the difference between code and data.
\uXXXX is JavaScript syntax to write the Unicode codepoint of a character in a text literal. It gets replaced with the actual character, when the JavaScript parser interprets this code.
Now you have a variable that contains the value I\u2019m already - that is data. This does not get parsed as JavaScript, so it does mean the literal characters I\u2019m, and not I’m. eval can “fix” that, because the missing step of interpreting this as code is simply what eval does.
If you do not want to use eval (and thereby invite all the potential risks that entails, if the input data is not completely under your control), then you can parse those numeric values from the string using regular expressions, and then use String.formCharCode to create the actual Unicode character from the given code point:
var myString = 'I\\u2019m and I\\u2018m';
var myNewString = myString.replace(/\\u([0-9]+)/g, function(m, n) {
return String.fromCharCode(parseInt(n, 16)) }
);
console.log(myNewString)
/\\u([0-9]+)/g - regular expression to match this \uXXXX format (X=digits), g modifier to replace all matches instead of stopping after the first.
parseInt(n, 16) - to convert the hexadecimal value to a decimal first, because String.fromCharCode wants the latter.

decodeURIComponent(JSON.parse('"I\\u2019m"'));
OR for multiple
'I\\\u2019m'.split('\\').join().replace(/,/g,'');
'I\u2019m'.split('\\').join().replace(/,/g,'');

Looks like there's no other way other than eval (JSON.parse doesn't like new lines in strings)
NOTE: The function would return false if it has a trailing backslash
function backslashString(input){
input = input.replace(/`/g, '\\`'); // Escape quotes for input to eval
try{
return eval('`'+input+'`');
}catch(e){ // Will return false if input has errors in backslashing
return false;
}
}

Search for Literal String

I'm trying to find certain characters in a string and I receive the error "Unterminated string literal".
I'm searching for "\". Is there a way to find this character (or other literal strings) without an error?
thanks,
Here is the simple function:
function test() {
var a = "AGA_NAA1\MTH1.33";
var rep = a.replace("\","-");
Browser.msgBox(rep);
}
ERROR: Unterminated string literal.

I realize you are sharing a simplified example. However, this is happening because on variable a you also need double backslash because backslash is a special "escape" character:
function test() {
var a = "AGA_NAA1\\MTH1.33";
var rep = a.replace("\\","-");
Browser.msgBox(rep);
}

replaceAll in javascript and dollar sign

I have a string with 3 dollar signs e.g. $$$Test123. I would like to display this string in a div.
The problem is that when I use replace I get $$Test123 - 2 dollar signs instead of 3.
example:
var sHtml="<_content_>";
var s="$$$Test";
sHtml= sHtml.replace("<_content_>", s);
Now the result of sHtml is $$Test;
Any idea how can it be solved?

javascript does not have a default replace all function. You can write your own like this
function replaceAll(txt, replace, with_this) {
return txt.replace(new RegExp(replace, 'g'),with_this);
}

$ has a special meaning when included in a string for the second argument of a call to replace(). Normally, you would use it to refer to matched expressions within the original string. For example:
"foo foooo".replace(/fo+/g, "$&bar");
//-> "foobar foooobar"
In the example above, $& refers back to the entire match, which is foo in the first word and foooo in the second.
Your problem stems from the special meaning of $. In order to use a literal $ in the match, you must chain two together so that the first escapes the second. To have 3 literal $ symbols, you must chain 6 together, like so:
var sHtml="<_content_>";
var s="$$$$$$Test";
sHtml= sHtml.replace("<_content_>", s);
//-> "$$$Test"

Quotes are your friend
var sHtml="<_content_>"
var s="$$$Test";
sHtml= sHtml.replace("<_content_>", s);

Try this replaceAll function:
http://www.dumpsite.com/replaceAll.php
It performs a replace all using the javascript replace function via a regular expression for speed, and at the same time eliminates the side effects that occur when regular expression special characters are inadvertently present in either the search or replace string.
Using this function you do not have to worry about escaping special characters. All special characters are pre escaped before the replaceAll is preformed.
This function will produce the output you are expecting.
Try it out and provide your feeback.

Escaping Strings in JavaScript

Does JavaScript have a built-in function like PHP's addslashes (or addcslashes) function to add backslashes to characters that need escaping in a string?
For example, this:
This is a demo string with
'single-quotes' and "double-quotes".
...would become:
This is a demo string with
\'single-quotes\' and
\"double-quotes\".

http://locutus.io/php/strings/addslashes/
function addslashes( str ) {
return (str + '').replace(/[\\"']/g, '\\$&').replace(/\u0000/g, '\\0');
}

You can also try this for the double quotes:
JSON.stringify(sDemoString).slice(1, -1);
JSON.stringify('my string with "quotes"').slice(1, -1);

A variation of the function provided by Paolo Bergantino that works directly on String:
String.prototype.addSlashes = function()
{
//no need to do (str+'') anymore because 'this' can only be a string
return this.replace(/[\\"']/g, '\\$&').replace(/\u0000/g, '\\0');
}
By adding the code above in your library you will be able to do:
var test = "hello single ' double \" and slash \\ yippie";
alert(test.addSlashes());
EDIT:
Following suggestions in the comments, whoever is concerned about conflicts amongst JavaScript libraries can add the following code:
if(!String.prototype.addSlashes)
{
String.prototype.addSlashes = function()...
}
else
alert("Warning: String.addSlashes has already been declared elsewhere.");

Use encodeURI()
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/encodeURI
Escapes pretty much all problematic characters in strings for proper JSON encoding and transit for use in web applications. It's not a perfect validation solution but it catches the low-hanging fruit.

You can also use this
let str = "hello single ' double \" and slash \\ yippie";
let escapeStr = escape(str);
document.write("<b>str : </b>"+str);
document.write("<br/><b>escapeStr : </b>"+escapeStr);
document.write("<br/><b>unEscapeStr : </b> "+unescape(escapeStr));