Can I convert a C# string value to an escaped string literal?
C#StringEscapingC# Problem Overview
In C#, can I convert a string value to a string literal, the way I would see it in code? I would like to replace tabs, newlines, etc. with their escape sequences.
If this code:
Console.WriteLine(someString);
produces:
Hello
World!
I want this code:
Console.WriteLine(ToLiteral(someString));
to produce:
\tHello\r\n\tWorld!\r\n
C# Solutions
Solution 1 - C#
A long time ago, I found this:
private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
using (var provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp"))
{
provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, null);
return writer.ToString();
}
}
}
This code:
var input = "\tHello\r\n\tWorld!";
Console.WriteLine(input);
Console.WriteLine(ToLiteral(input));
Produces:
Hello
World!
"\tHello\r\n\tWorld!"
These days, Graham discovered you can use Roslyn's Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp package on NuGet:
private static string ToLiteral(string valueTextForCompiler)
{
return Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.SymbolDisplay.FormatLiteral(valueTextForCompiler, false);
}
Solution 2 - C#
Use Regex.Escape(String):
> Regex.Escape escapes a minimal set of characters (, *, +, ?, |, {, [, > (,), ^, $,., #, and white space) by replacing them with their escape > codes.
Solution 3 - C#
This is a fully working implementation, including escaping of Unicode and ASCII non-printable characters. It does not insert "+" signs like Hallgrim's answer.
static string ToLiteral(string input) {
StringBuilder literal = new StringBuilder(input.Length + 2);
literal.Append("\"");
foreach (var c in input) {
switch (c) {
case '\"': literal.Append("\\\""); break;
case '\\': literal.Append(@"\\"); break;
case '\0': literal.Append(@"\0"); break;
case '\a': literal.Append(@"\a"); break;
case '\b': literal.Append(@"\b"); break;
case '\f': literal.Append(@"\f"); break;
case '\n': literal.Append(@"\n"); break;
case '\r': literal.Append(@"\r"); break;
case '\t': literal.Append(@"\t"); break;
case '\v': literal.Append(@"\v"); break;
default:
// ASCII printable character
if (c >= 0x20 && c <= 0x7e) {
literal.Append(c);
// As UTF16 escaped character
} else {
literal.Append(@"\u");
literal.Append(((int)c).ToString("x4"));
}
break;
}
}
literal.Append("\"");
return literal.ToString();
}
Note that this also escapes all Unicode characters. If your environment supports them, you could change that part to escape only control characters:
// UTF16 control characters
} else if (Char.GetUnicodeCategory(c) == UnicodeCategory.Control) {
literal.Append(@"\u");
literal.Append(((int)c).ToString("x4"));
} else {
literal.Append(c);
}
Solution 4 - C#
A more structured approach, including all escape sequences for strings and chars, is:
It doesn't replace Unicode characters with their literal equivalent. It doesn't cook eggs, either.
public class ReplaceString
{
static readonly IDictionary<string, string> m_replaceDict
= new Dictionary<string, string>();
const string ms_regexEscapes = @"[\a\b\f\n\r\t\v\\""]";
public static string StringLiteral(string i_string)
{
return Regex.Replace(i_string, ms_regexEscapes, match);
}
public static string CharLiteral(char c)
{
return c == '\'' ? @"'\''" : string.Format("'{0}'", c);
}
private static string match(Match m)
{
string match = m.ToString();
if (m_replaceDict.ContainsKey(match))
{
return m_replaceDict[match];
}
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
static ReplaceString()
{
m_replaceDict.Add("\a", @"\a");
m_replaceDict.Add("\b", @"\b");
m_replaceDict.Add("\f", @"\f");
m_replaceDict.Add("\n", @"\n");
m_replaceDict.Add("\r", @"\r");
m_replaceDict.Add("\t", @"\t");
m_replaceDict.Add("\v", @"\v");
m_replaceDict.Add("\\", @"\\");
m_replaceDict.Add("\0", @"\0");
//The SO parser gets fooled by the verbatim version
//of the string to replace - @"\"""
//so use the 'regular' version
m_replaceDict.Add("\"", "\\\"");
}
static void Main(string[] args){
string s = "here's a \"\n\tstring\" to test";
Console.WriteLine(ReplaceString.StringLiteral(s));
Console.WriteLine(ReplaceString.CharLiteral('c'));
Console.WriteLine(ReplaceString.CharLiteral('\''));
}
}
Solution 5 - C#
There's a method for this in Roslyn's Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp package on NuGet:
private static string ToLiteral(string valueTextForCompiler)
{
return Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.SymbolDisplay.FormatLiteral(valueTextForCompiler, false);
}
Obviously, this didn't exist at the time of the original question, but it might help people who end up here from Google Search.
Solution 6 - C#
Try:
var t = HttpUtility.JavaScriptStringEncode(s);
Solution 7 - C#
public static class StringHelpers
{
private static Dictionary<string, string> escapeMapping = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{"\"", @"\\\"""},
{"\\\\", @"\\"},
{"\a", @"\a"},
{"\b", @"\b"},
{"\f", @"\f"},
{"\n", @"\n"},
{"\r", @"\r"},
{"\t", @"\t"},
{"\v", @"\v"},
{"\0", @"\0"},
};
private static Regex escapeRegex = new Regex(string.Join("|", escapeMapping.Keys.ToArray()));
public static string Escape(this string s)
{
return escapeRegex.Replace(s, EscapeMatchEval);
}
private static string EscapeMatchEval(Match m)
{
if (escapeMapping.ContainsKey(m.Value))
{
return escapeMapping[m.Value];
}
return escapeMapping[Regex.Escape(m.Value)];
}
}
Solution 8 - C#
Hallgrim's answer is excellent, but the "+", newline and indent additions were breaking functionality for me. An easy way around it is:
private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
using (var provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp"))
{
provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, new CodeGeneratorOptions {IndentString = "\t"});
var literal = writer.ToString();
literal = literal.Replace(string.Format("\" +{0}\t\"", Environment.NewLine), "");
return literal;
}
}
}
Solution 9 - C#
Here is a little improvement for Smilediver's answer. It will not escape all no-ASCII characters, but only these are really needed.
using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text;
public static class CodeHelper
{
public static string ToLiteral(this string input)
{
var literal = new StringBuilder(input.Length + 2);
literal.Append("\"");
foreach (var c in input)
{
switch (c)
{
case '\'': literal.Append(@"\'"); break;
case '\"': literal.Append("\\\""); break;
case '\\': literal.Append(@"\\"); break;
case '\0': literal.Append(@"\0"); break;
case '\a': literal.Append(@"\a"); break;
case '\b': literal.Append(@"\b"); break;
case '\f': literal.Append(@"\f"); break;
case '\n': literal.Append(@"\n"); break;
case '\r': literal.Append(@"\r"); break;
case '\t': literal.Append(@"\t"); break;
case '\v': literal.Append(@"\v"); break;
default:
if (Char.GetUnicodeCategory(c) != UnicodeCategory.Control)
{
literal.Append(c);
}
else
{
literal.Append(@"\u");
literal.Append(((ushort)c).ToString("x4"));
}
break;
}
}
literal.Append("\"");
return literal.ToString();
}
}
Solution 10 - C#
Interesting question.
If you can't find a better method, you can always replace.
In case you're opting for it, you could use this C# Escape Sequence List:
- ' - single quote, needed for character literals
- " - double quote, needed for string literals
- \ - backslash
- \0 - Unicode character 0
- \a - Alert (character 7)
- \b - Backspace (character 8)
- \f - Form feed (character 12)
- \n - New line (character 10)
- \r - Carriage return (character 13)
- \t - Horizontal tab (character 9)
- \v - Vertical quote (character 11)
- \uxxxx - Unicode escape sequence for character with hex value xxxx
- \xn[n][n][n] - Unicode escape sequence for character with hex value nnnn (variable length version of \uxxxx)
- \Uxxxxxxxx - Unicode escape sequence for character with hex value xxxxxxxx (for generating surrogates)
This list can be found in the C# Frequently Asked Questions What character escape sequences are available?
Solution 11 - C#
If JSON conventions are enough for the unescaped strings you want to get escaped and you already use Json.NET (Newtonsoft.Json) in your project (it has a pretty large overhead), you may use this package like the following:
using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(ToLiteral(@"abc\n123"));
}
private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string>("\"" + input + "\"");
}
}
Solution 12 - C#
public static class StringEscape
{
static char[] toEscape = "\0\x1\x2\x3\x4\x5\x6\a\b\t\n\v\f\r\xe\xf\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f\"\\".ToCharArray();
static string[] literals = @"\0,\x0001,\x0002,\x0003,\x0004,\x0005,\x0006,\a,\b,\t,\n,\v,\f,\r,\x000e,\x000f,\x0010,\x0011,\x0012,\x0013,\x0014,\x0015,\x0016,\x0017,\x0018,\x0019,\x001a,\x001b,\x001c,\x001d,\x001e,\x001f".Split(new char[] { ',' });
public static string Escape(this string input)
{
int i = input.IndexOfAny(toEscape);
if (i < 0) return input;
var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder(input.Length + 5);
int j = 0;
do
{
sb.Append(input, j, i - j);
var c = input[i];
if (c < 0x20) sb.Append(literals[c]); else sb.Append(@"\").Append(c);
} while ((i = input.IndexOfAny(toEscape, j = ++i)) > 0);
return sb.Append(input, j, input.Length - j).ToString();
}
}
Solution 13 - C#
My attempt at adding ToVerbatim to Hallgrim's accepted answer:
private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
using (var provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp"))
{
provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, new CodeGeneratorOptions { IndentString = "\t" });
var literal = writer.ToString();
literal = literal.Replace(string.Format("\" +{0}\t\"", Environment.NewLine), "");
return literal;
}
}
}
private static string ToVerbatim(string input)
{
string literal = ToLiteral(input);
string verbatim = "@" + literal.Replace(@"\r\n", Environment.NewLine);
return verbatim;
}
Solution 14 - C#
Hallgrim's answer was excellent. Here's a small tweak in case you need to parse out additional white space characters and linebreaks with a C# regular expression. I needed this in the case of a serialized JSON value for insertion into Google Sheets and ran into trouble as the code was inserting tabs, +, spaces, etc.
provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, null);
var literal = writer.ToString();
var r2 = new Regex(@"\"" \+.\n[\s]+\""", RegexOptions.ECMAScript);
literal = r2.Replace(literal, "");
return literal;
Solution 15 - C#
I submit my own implementation, which handles null values and should be more performant on account of using array lookup tables, manual hex conversion, and avoiding switch statements.
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Linq;
public static class StringLiteralEncoding {
private static readonly char[] HEX_DIGIT_LOWER = "0123456789abcdef".ToCharArray();
private static readonly char[] LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS;
static StringLiteralEncoding() {
// Per http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/h21280bw.aspx
var escapes = new string[] { "\aa", "\bb", "\ff", "\nn", "\rr", "\tt", "\vv", "\"\"", "\\\\", "??", "\00" };
LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS = new char[escapes.Max(e => e[0]) + 1];
foreach(var escape in escapes)
LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[escape[0]] = escape[1];
}
/// <summary>
/// Convert the string to the equivalent C# string literal, enclosing the string in double quotes and inserting
/// escape sequences as necessary.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="s">The string to be converted to a C# string literal.</param>
/// <returns><paramref name="s"/> represented as a C# string literal.</returns>
public static string Encode(string s) {
if(null == s) return "null";
var sb = new StringBuilder(s.Length + 2).Append('"');
for(var rp = 0; rp < s.Length; rp++) {
var c = s[rp];
if(c < LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS.Length && '\0' != LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[c])
sb.Append('\\').Append(LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[c]);
else if('~' >= c && c >= ' ')
sb.Append(c);
else
sb.Append(@"\x")
.Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >> 12 & 0x0F])
.Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >> 8 & 0x0F])
.Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >> 4 & 0x0F])
.Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c & 0x0F]);
}
return sb.Append('"').ToString();
}
}
Solution 16 - C#
Code:
string someString1 = "\tHello\r\n\tWorld!\r\n";
string someString2 = @"\tHello\r\n\tWorld!\r\n";
Console.WriteLine(someString1);
Console.WriteLine(someString2);
Output:
Hello
World!
\tHello\r\n\tWorld!\r\n