---
title: escape()
slug: Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/escape
page-type: javascript-function
status:
  - deprecated
browser-compat: javascript.builtins.escape
sidebar: jssidebar
---

{{Deprecated_Header}}

> [!NOTE]
> `escape()` 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 {{jsxref("encodeURIComponent()")}} or {{jsxref("encodeURI()")}} if possible.

The **`escape()`** function computes a new string in which certain characters have been replaced by hexadecimal escape sequences.

## Syntax

```js-nolint
escape(str)
```

### Parameters

- `str`
  - : A string to be encoded.

### Return value

A new string in which certain characters have been escaped.

## Description

`escape()` is a function property of the global object.

The `escape()` function replaces all characters with escape sequences, with the exception of {{Glossary("ASCII")}} word characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, \_) and `@\*_+-./`. Characters are escaped by UTF-16 code units. If the code unit's value is less than 256, it is represented by a two-digit hexadecimal number in the format `%XX`, left-padded with 0 if necessary. Otherwise, it is represented by a four-digit hexadecimal number in the format `%uXXXX`, left-padded with 0 if necessary.

> [!NOTE]
> This function was used mostly for {{Glossary("Percent-encoding", "percent-encoding")}} and is partly based on the escape format in {{rfc(1738)}}. The escape format is _not_ an [escape sequence](/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Lexical_grammar#escape_sequences) in string literals. You can replace `%XX` with `\xXX` and `%uXXXX` with `\uXXXX` to get a string containing actual string-literal escape sequences.

## Examples

### Using escape()

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

// special characters
escape("@*_+-./"); // "@*_+-./"
```

## Specifications

{{Specifications}}

## Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

## See also

- [Polyfill of `escape` in `core-js`](https://github.com/zloirock/core-js#ecmascript-string-and-regexp)
- {{jsxref("encodeURI")}}
- {{jsxref("encodeURIComponent")}}
- {{jsxref("unescape")}}