How do I convert unicode from an HTML input to a greek character in javascript?

Question

How do I convert unicode from an HTML input to a greek character in javascript? The first example does not work, but the second does.

var str = input.value;       \u03B1 (typed into input box)
console.log(str);            \u03B1

var str = "\u03B1";          assigned directly
console.log(str);            α

Answer 1

The backslash is escaping in the second variable str - in the first value, if input.value was \α , it would ACTUALLY be the same as var str = "\\\\U03B1" to invalidate the backslash by escaping it.

If you want to evaluate the escaped character in the field, you can do so like this:

var str = input.value.replace("\\u", "");
str = String.fromCharCode(parseInt(str, 16));

This works because you are parsing an integer from everything after \\u and passing that into fromCharCode . Character codes are in integers - you are parsing that code from the original \⎱ code.

Answer 2

To convert unicode literals in strings to actual characters you can just run them though String.prototype.replace with String.fromCharCode

var str = '\\u03B1\\u03B2\\u03B3\\u03B4'; // "\u03B1\u03B2\u03B3\u03B4"

str.replace(/\\u([\da-fA-F]{4})/g, function (m, $1) {
    return String.fromCharCode(parseInt($1, 16));
}); // "αβγδ"