Replace double backslashes with a single backslash in javascript

Question

I have the following problem:

I have a script that executes an AJAX request to a server, the server returns C:\\backup\\ in the preview. However, the response is "C:\\\\backup\\\\" . Not really a big deal, since I just thought to replace the double slashes with single ones. I've been looking around here on stack, but I could only find how to replace single backslashes with double ones, but I need it the other way around.

Can someone help me on this matter?

Answer 1

This should do it: "C:\\\\backup\\\\".replace(/\\\\\\\\/g, '\\\\')

In the regular expression, a single \\ must be escaped to \\\\ , and in the replacement \\ also.

[ edit 2021 ] Maybe it's better to use template literals .

 console.log(`original solution ${"C:\\\\backup\\\\".replace(/\\\\\\\\/g, '\\\\')}`) // a template literal will automagically replace \\\\ with \\ console.log(`template string without further ado ${`C:\\\\backup\\\\`}`); // but if they are escaped themselves console.log(`Double escaped ${`C:\\\\\\\\backup\\\\\\\\`.replace(/\\\\\\\\/g, '\\\\')}`); // don't want to replace the second \\\\ console.log(`not the second ${`C:\\\\\\\\backup\\\\\\\\`.replace(/\\\\\\\\/, '\\\\')}`); // don't want to replace the first \\\\ console.log(`not the first ${`C:\\\\\\\\backup\\\\`.replace(/[\\\\]$/, '\\\\')}`);

Answer 2

Best is to use regex to replace all occurrences:

C:\\backup\\".replace(/\/\//g, "/")

this returns: C:\\backup\\

OR

use split()

"C:\\backup\\".split();

both produces your desired result

C:\\backup\\

 console.log("using \\"C:\\\\backup\\\\\\".replace(/\\/\\//g, \\"/\\")") console.log("C:\\\\backup\\\\".replace(/\\/\\//g, "/")); console.log("Using \\"C:\\\\backup\\\\\\".split()"); console.log("C:\\\\backup\\\\".split());