JavaScript: convert string literal to string

Question

I want to convert string literals to strings.

For example:

var stringLiteral="\\\" hi world \\\"";
console.log(stringLiteral) //outputs \" hi world \";
var string=convertStringLiteralToString(stringLiteral);
// ^ eval() would be perfect for this were it not horribly slow. <the cake is a lie, guys>
console.log(string); //outputs " hi world "

How could I write a function that does this?

Answer 1

The list of all possible escaped characters is very short (maybe 7 or 8 characters). Your best option is a simple text replace.

string = string
    .replace('\\\"','\"')
    .replace('\\\\','\\')
    /* ... and so on */

Note that eval is not only slow, but also very dangerous when used against unchecked strings.