JSON Escape and JSON Unescape are processes that are used to convert special characters in JSON data to a safe format for transmission or storage and vice versa.
1. JSON Escape
Escaping is the process of converting special characters in a JSON string into a format that can be safely included within a JSON structure. Certain characters have specific meanings in JSON, so they must be escaped when they are used as part of the data.
Common Characters that need to be escaped:
Double quotes (") – Escaped as \"
Backslash (\) – Escaped as \\
Newline (\n) – Represents a line break.
Tab (\t) – Represents a horizontal tab.
Carriage return (\r) – Represents a carriage return.
Unicode characters – Represented as \u followed by the character's Unicode code point (e.g., \u00A9 for the copyright symbol).
Example:
Original string:
json
{
"name": "John \"Doe\"",
"address": "123\nStreet"
}
Escaped version:
json
{
"name": "John \\\"Doe\\\"",
"address": "123\\nStreet"
}
2. JSON Unescape
Unescaping is the process of converting escaped characters back into their original form. This is typically done when the data is being read or processed, and you need to retrieve the original content.
Example:
Escaped string:
json
{
"name": "John \\\"Doe\\\"",
"address": "123\\nStreet"
}
Unescaped version:
json
{
"name": "John \"Doe\"",
"address": "123
Street"
}
Why is escaping important?
Escaping is crucial when handling raw data that contains special characters (like quotes or newlines) to ensure that the data is parsed correctly and does not interfere with the JSON syntax. For example:
Quotes are used to delimit keys and values in JSON. So, if your value contains quotes, they must be escaped to avoid breaking the structure.
Newlines and tabs might break the format or make the data unreadable without proper escaping.