I'd recommend using Buffer:
Buffer.from('someString', '<input-encoding>').toString('utf-8')
This avoids any unnecessary dependencies that other answers require, since Buffer is included with node.js, and is already defined in the global scope.
I'd recommend using Buffer:
Buffer.from('someString', '<input-encoding>').toString('utf-8')
This avoids any unnecessary dependencies that other answers require, since Buffer is included with node.js, and is already defined in the global scope.
Use the utf8 module from npm to encode/decode the string.
Installation:
npm install utf8
In a browser:
<script src="utf8.js"></script>
In Node.js:
const utf8 = require('utf8');
API:
Encode:
utf8.encode(string)
Encodes any given JavaScript string (string) as UTF-8, and returns the UTF-8-encoded version of the string. It throws an error if the input string contains a non-scalar value, i.e. a lone surrogate. (If you need to be able to encode non-scalar values as well, use WTF-8 instead.)
// U+00A9 COPYRIGHT SIGN; see http://codepoints.net/U+00A9
utf8.encode('\xA9');
// → '\xC2\xA9'
// U+10001 LINEAR B SYLLABLE B038 E; see http://codepoints.net/U+10001
utf8.encode('\uD800\uDC01');
// → '\xF0\x90\x80\x81'
Decode:
utf8.decode(byteString)
Decodes any given UTF-8-encoded string (byteString) as UTF-8, and returns the UTF-8-decoded version of the string. It throws an error when malformed UTF-8 is detected. (If you need to be able to decode encoded non-scalar values as well, use WTF-8 instead.)
utf8.decode('\xC2\xA9');
// → '\xA9'
utf8.decode('\xF0\x90\x80\x81');
// → '\uD800\uDC01'
// → U+10001 LINEAR B SYLLABLE B038 E
Resources
Hi!
When it comes to escape and unescape, I live by two rules:
- Avoid them when you easily can.
- Otherwise, use them.
Avoiding them when you easily can:
As mentioned in the question, both escape and unescape have been deprecated. In general, one should avoid using deprecated functions.
So, if encodeURIComponent or encodeURI does the trick for you, you should use that instead of escape.
Using them when you can't easily avoid them:
Browsers will, as far as possible, strive to achieve backwards compatibility. All major browsers have already implemented escape and unescape; why would they un-implement them?
Browsers would have to redefine escapeand unescape if the new specification requires them to do so. But wait! The people who write specifications are quite smart. They too, are interested in not breaking backwards compatibility!
I realize that the above argument is weak. But trust me, ... when it comes to browsers, deprecated stuff works. This even includes deprecated HTML tags like <xmp> and <center>.
Using escape and unescape:
So naturally, the next question is, when would one use escape or unescape?
Recently, while working on CloudBrave, I had to deal with utf8, latin1 and inter-conversions.
After reading a bunch of blog posts, I realized how simple this was:
var utf8_to_latin1 = function (s) {
return unescape(encodeURIComponent(s));
};
var latin1_to_utf8 = function (s) {
return decodeURIComponent(escape(s));
};
These inter-conversions, without using escape and unescape are rather involved. By not avoiding escape and unescape, life becomes simpler.
Hope this helps.
It is never okay to use encodeURI() or encodeURIComponent(). Let's try it out:
console.log(encodeURIComponent('@#*'));Input: @#*. Output: %40%23*. Wait, so, what exactly happened to the * character? Why wasn't that converted? Imagine this: You ask a user what file to delete and their response is *. Server-side, you convert that using encodeURIComponent() and then run rm *. Well, got news for you: using encodeURIComponent() means you just deleted all files.
Use fixedEncodeURI(), when trying to encode a complete URL (i.e., all of example.com?arg=val), as defined and further explained at the MDN encodeURI() Documentation...
function fixedEncodeURI(str) { return encodeURI(str).replace(/%5B/g, '[').replace(/%5D/g, ']'); }
Or, you may need to use use fixedEncodeURIComponent(), when trying to encode part of a URL (i.e., the arg or the val in example.com?arg=val), as defined and further explained at the MDN encodeURIComponent() Documentation...
function fixedEncodeURIComponent(str) { return encodeURIComponent(str).replace(/[!'()*]/g, function(c) { return '%' + c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16); }); }
If you are unable to distinguish them based on the above description, I always like to simplify it with:
fixedEncodeURI(): will not encode+@?=:#;,$&to their http-encoded equivalents (as&and+are common URL operators)fixedEncodeURIComponent()will encode+@?=:#;,$&to their http-encoded equivalents.
» npm install utf8