Ok. This may be a dumb question but I am stuck.

In my javascript, I have a string variable that contains ' which stands for single quote. e.g. some_text_'_some_text Now, I want to replace this with the actual single quote like some_text_'_some_text.

Obvious way would be using str.replace(/'/g,"'") but the problem is I write this javascript code into a third party software that replaces ' by ' when I save the script. So, if I open script again, it shows str.replace(/'/g,"'"). So when the script runs, it does not do replace operation correctly.

One would ask why do I need this replace to work?
The reason is that this variable is passed on to build a SQL query and I don't want ' in my query. I want it to be ' instead which I can escape in SQL.

EDIT
So, I realized the reason for this behavior and potential answerers may want to take this into account. The software I work with stores all its files as XML including javascript code I write. So, it converts all special characters to HTML codes while saving and parses them back when it reads it. That's the reason ' gets converted to '.

Ok. This may be a dumb question but I am stuck.

In my javascript, I have a string variable that contains ' which stands for single quote. e.g. some_text_'_some_text Now, I want to replace this with the actual single quote like some_text_'_some_text.

Obvious way would be using str.replace(/'/g,"'") but the problem is I write this javascript code into a third party software that replaces ' by ' when I save the script. So, if I open script again, it shows str.replace(/'/g,"'"). So when the script runs, it does not do replace operation correctly.

One would ask why do I need this replace to work?
The reason is that this variable is passed on to build a SQL query and I don't want ' in my query. I want it to be ' instead which I can escape in SQL.

EDIT
So, I realized the reason for this behavior and potential answerers may want to take this into account. The software I work with stores all its files as XML including javascript code I write. So, it converts all special characters to HTML codes while saving and parses them back when it reads it. That's the reason ' gets converted to '.

• javascript

• You need to decode your html entities. Take a look at this answer :) stackoverflow./questions/5796718/html-entity-decode – dev7 Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 0:39
• Also - you can do it easier on most server side scripting. i.e with PHP you can use htmlspecialchars_decode and then escape it. – dev7 Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 0:41
• 2 str.replace(/'/g,"'")? – Bergi Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 0:47
• 1 And if @Bergi’s suggestion doesn’t help, try to trick the software by something like str.replace(new RegExp("&"+"#"+"x27;", "g"), "'") … try recognizing that as numeric character reference, you sneaky little 3rd party party-crasher software! – C3roe Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 2:45
• @Bergi: For some reason, it didn't work. You may want to post it as answer in case someone has same problem in future and your answer works for him/her. And thanks for the help. – tumchaaditya Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 18:03

1 Answer 1

If @Bergi’s suggestion doesn’t help, try to trick the software by something like

str.replace(new RegExp("&"+"#"+"x27;", "g"), "'")

– basically splitting the numeric character reference into several pieces, so that the software that is messing with things can’t recognize it as such any more.