How to Safely Escape Special Characters in JSON Strings
Complete guide to escaping double quotes, backslashes, tabs, and newlines in JSON payloads without breaking parsers.
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In JSON string values, specific characters must be escaped with a reverse solidus (`\`) according to RFC 8259 Section 7.
Required Escape Sequences
- `\"`: Quotation mark (0x22)
- `\\`: Reverse solidus / backslash (0x5C)
- `\/`: Solidus / slash (optional, but permitted)
- `\b`: Backspace
- `\f`: Form feed
- `\n`: Line feed / newline
- `\r`: Carriage return
- `\t`: Tab
- `\uXXXX`: Four-hex-digit Unicode code point (e.g. `\u0041` for "A")
Whenever generating JSON dynamically in backend languages, always use your language's native serializer (e.g. `json.dumps()` in Python or `json_encode()` in PHP) rather than string interpolation to ensure correct escaping.
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