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javastringescaping

How to unescape a Java string literal in Java?

I'm processing some Java source code using Java. I'm extracting the string literals and feeding them to a function taking a String. The problem is that I need to pass the unescaped version of the String to the function (i.e. this means converting \n to a newline, and \\ to a single \, etc).

Is there a function inside the Java API that does this? If not, can I obtain such functionality from some library? Obviously the Java compiler has to do this conversion.

Solution

  • String#translateEscapes

    Modern Java offers the method String#translateEscapes.

    This feature arrived in Java 15, after a preview in Java 13 and 14.

    This feature un-escapes:

    • Single-letter combinations, such as \t for Tab and \r for Carriage Return.
    • Octal numbers \0 through \377 as a code point equivalent

    This method does not translate Unicode escapes such as "\u2022" for the BULLET character (•).