unescape()

Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.

Note: unescape() is a non-standard function implemented by browsers and was only standardized for cross-engine compatibility. It is not required to be implemented by all JavaScript engines and may not work everywhere. Use decodeURIComponent() or decodeURI() if possible.

The unescape() function computes a new string in which hexadecimal escape sequences are replaced with the characters that they represent. The escape sequences might be introduced by a function like escape().

Syntax

js
unescape(str)

Parameters

str

A string to be decoded.

Return value

A new string in which certain characters have been unescaped.

Description

unescape() is a function property of the global object.

The unescape() function replaces any escape sequence with the character that it represents. Specifically, it replaces any escape sequence of the form %XX or %uXXXX (where X represents one hexadecimal digit) with the character that has the hexadecimal value XX/XXXX. If the escape sequence is not a valid escape sequence (for example, if % is followed by one or no hex digit), it is left as-is.

Note: This function was used mostly for percent-encoding and is partly based on the escape format in RFC 1738. The unescape() function does not evaluate escape sequences in string literals. You can replace \xXX with %XX and \uXXXX with %uXXXX to get a string that can be handled by unescape().

Examples

Using unescape()

js
unescape("abc123"); // "abc123"
unescape("%E4%F6%FC"); // "äöü"
unescape("%u0107"); // "ć"

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification
# sec-unescape-string

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also