# string-escape - escape special characters

## Synopsis

    string escape [-n | --no-quoted] [--style=] [STRING ...]
    string unescape [--style=] [STRING ...]

## Description

`string escape` escapes each STRING in one of three ways. The first is --style=script. This is the default. It alters the string such that it can be passed back to `eval` to produce the original argument again. By default, all special characters are escaped, and quotes are used to simplify the output when possible. If -n or --no-quoted is given, the simplifying quoted format is not used. Exit status: 0 if at least one string was escaped, or 1 otherwise.

--style=var ensures the string can be used as a variable name by hex encoding any non-alphanumeric characters. The string is first converted to UTF-8 before being encoded.

--style=url ensures the string can be used as a URL by hex encoding any character which is not legal in a URL. The string is first converted to UTF-8 before being encoded.

--style=regex escapes an input string for literal matching within a regex expression. The string is first converted to UTF-8 before being encoded.

`string unescape` performs the inverse of the `string escape` command. If the string to be unescaped is not properly formatted it is ignored. For example, doing `string unescape --style=var (string escape --style=var $str)` will return the original string. There is no support for unescaping --style=regex.

## Examples

    >_ echo \x07 | string escape
    \cg

    >_ string escape --style=var 'a1 b2'\u6161
    a1_20_b2_E6_85_A1_