SQL Server STRING_ESCAPE Function

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the SQL Server STRING_ESCAPE() function to escape special characters in a string.

SQL Server STRING_ESCAPE() function overview

The STRING_ESCAPE() function escapes special characters in a string and returns the new string with escaped character. Currently, the STRING_ESCAPE() function only supports escaping JSON’s special characters.

The following shows the syntax of the STRING_ESCAPE() function:

STRING_ESCAPE(input_string, type)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The STRING_ESCAPE() accepts two arguments:

• input_string is an expression that resolves to a string to be escaped.
• type specifies the escaping rules that will be applied. Currently, type accepts only 'json' value.

The following tables list JSON special characters to be escaped:

SQL Server STRING_ESCAPE() function example

This example uses the STRING_ESCAPE() function to escape special characters using JSON rules and return a new string with escaped characters.

SELECT 
    STRING_ESCAPE('[''	This is a special / "message" /'']', 'json') AS
    escapedJson;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the output:

escapedJson
--------------------------------------------
['\tThis is a special \/ \"message\" \/']

(1 row affected)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the SQL Server STRING_ESCAPE() function to escape special character using JSON rules and return the new string with escaped characters.