Can I convert a C# string value to an escaped string literal

Question

In C#, can I convert a string value to a string literal, the way I would see it in code? I would like to replace tabs, newlines, etc. with their escape sequences.

If

Answer 1

Hallgrim's answer was excellent. Here's a small tweak in case you need to parse out additional whitespace characters and linebreaks with a c# regular expression. I needed this in the case of a serialized Json value for insertion into google sheets and ran into trouble as the code was inserting tabs, +, spaces, etc.

  provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, null);
  var literal = writer.ToString();
  var r2 = new Regex(@"\"" \+.\n[\s]+\""", RegexOptions.ECMAScript);
  literal = r2.Replace(literal, "");
  return literal;

Answer 2

I submit my own implementation, which handles null values and should be more performant on account of using array lookup tables, manual hex conversion, and avoiding switch statements.

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Linq;

public static class StringLiteralEncoding {
  private static readonly char[] HEX_DIGIT_LOWER = "0123456789abcdef".ToCharArray();
  private static readonly char[] LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS;

  static StringLiteralEncoding() {
    // Per http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/h21280bw.aspx
    var escapes = new string[] { "\aa", "\bb", "\ff", "\nn", "\rr", "\tt", "\vv", "\"\"", "\\\\", "??", "\00" };
    LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS = new char[escapes.Max(e => e[0]) + 1];
    foreach(var escape in escapes)
      LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[escape[0]] = escape[1];
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// Convert the string to the equivalent C# string literal, enclosing the string in double quotes and inserting
  /// escape sequences as necessary.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="s">The string to be converted to a C# string literal.</param>
  /// <returns><paramref name="s"/> represented as a C# string literal.</returns>
  public static string Encode(string s) {
    if(null == s) return "null";

    var sb = new StringBuilder(s.Length + 2).Append('"');
    for(var rp = 0; rp < s.Length; rp++) {
      var c = s[rp];
      if(c < LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS.Length && '\0' != LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[c])
        sb.Append('\\').Append(LITERALENCODE_ESCAPE_CHARS[c]);
      else if('~' >= c && c >= ' ')
        sb.Append(c);
      else
        sb.Append(@"\x")
          .Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >> 12 & 0x0F])
          .Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >>  8 & 0x0F])
          .Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c >>  4 & 0x0F])
          .Append(HEX_DIGIT_LOWER[c       & 0x0F]);
    }

    return sb.Append('"').ToString();
  }
}

Answer 3

Here is a little improvement for Smilediver's answer, it will not escape all no-ASCII chars but only these are really needed.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text;

public static class CodeHelper
{
    public static string ToLiteral(this string input)
    {
        var literal = new StringBuilder(input.Length + 2);
        literal.Append("\"");
        foreach (var c in input)
        {
            switch (c)
            {
                case '\'': literal.Append(@"\'"); break;
                case '\"': literal.Append("\\\""); break;
                case '\\': literal.Append(@"\\"); break;
                case '\0': literal.Append(@"\0"); break;
                case '\a': literal.Append(@"\a"); break;
                case '\b': literal.Append(@"\b"); break;
                case '\f': literal.Append(@"\f"); break;
                case '\n': literal.Append(@"\n"); break;
                case '\r': literal.Append(@"\r"); break;
                case '\t': literal.Append(@"\t"); break;
                case '\v': literal.Append(@"\v"); break;
                default:
                    if (Char.GetUnicodeCategory(c) != UnicodeCategory.Control)
                    {
                        literal.Append(c);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        literal.Append(@"\u");
                        literal.Append(((ushort)c).ToString("x4"));
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }
        literal.Append("\"");
        return literal.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 4

What about Regex.Escape(String) ?

Regex.Escape escapes a minimal set of characters (\, *, +, ?, |, {, [, (,), ^, $,., #, and white space) by replacing them with their escape codes.

Answer 5

I found this:

private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
    using (var writer = new StringWriter())
    {
        using (var provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp"))
        {
            provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, null);
            return writer.ToString();
        }
    }
}

This code:

var input = "\tHello\r\n\tWorld!";
Console.WriteLine(input);
Console.WriteLine(ToLiteral(input));

Produces:

    Hello
    World!
"\tHello\r\n\tWorld!"

Answer 6

My attempt at adding ToVerbatim to Hallgrim's accepted answer above:

private static string ToLiteral(string input)
{
    using (var writer = new StringWriter())
    {
        using (var provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp"))
        {
            provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, new CodeGeneratorOptions { IndentString = "\t" });
            var literal = writer.ToString();
            literal = literal.Replace(string.Format("\" +{0}\t\"", Environment.NewLine), "");           
            return literal;
        }
    }
}

private static string ToVerbatim( string input )
{
    string literal = ToLiteral( input );
    string verbatim = "@" + literal.Replace( @"\r\n", Environment.NewLine );
    return verbatim;
}