JSON character escaping function in classic ASP

By | April 26

If you are into advanced AJAX techniques you probably will stumble across JSON (www.) which makes developing (and therefore the life) a lot easier when working with AJAX. If you already stumbled across and you use JSON within classic ASP you might find this article useful. It deals with escaping characters for JSON acording to the RFC4627#2.5

I haven’t found any snippet out there for classic ASP so we had to write our own. And so my work colleague - an old algorithm guru - just came up with this function which covers all the requirements specified in the JSON RFC.

What we want to achieve…

  1. <script>
  2.   alert({foo:"<%= "some va""lue" %>"}.foo);
  3. </script>

The code snippet above will result in a javascript error because we are passing an apostrophe from ASP to Javascript which leads to an early closing of the string: foo:”some va”lue” (there is one apostrophe too much). The same thing happens for other characters as well. If you have line breaks, german umlaute, hidden special characters, etc. All those need to be escaped now in order that the javascript simple object notation (JSON) can interpret it. Thats the function which does the escaping (there are 3 more functions cause they’re used within the escapeJSON()):

  1. '******************************************************************************************
  2. '' @SDESCRIPTION:   takes a given string and makes it JSON valid (http:///)
  3. '' @AUTHOR: Michael Rebec
  4. '' @DESCRIPTION:    all characters which needs to be escaped are beeing replaced by their
  5. ''                  unicode representation according to the
  6. ''                  RFC4627#2.5 -
  7. '' @PARAM:          val [string]: value which should be escaped
  8. '' @RETURN:         [string] JSON valid string
  9. '******************************************************************************************
  10. public function escapeJSON(val)
  11.     cDoubleQuote = &h22
  12.     cRevSolidus = &h5C
  13.     cSolidus = &h2F
  14.  
  15.     for i = 1 to (len(val))
  16.         currentDigit = mid(val, i, 1)
  17.         if asc(currentDigit) > &h00 and asc(currentDigit) < &h1F then
  18.             currentDigit = escapeJSONSquence(currentDigit)
  19.         elseif asc(currentDigit) >= &hC280 and asc(currentDigit) <= &hC2BF then
  20.             currentDigit = "u00" + right(padLeft(hex(asc(currentDigit) - &hC200), 2, 0), 2)
  21.         elseif asc(currentDigit) >= &hC380 and asc(currentDigit) <= &hC3BF then
  22.             currentDigit = "u00" + right(padLeft(hex(asc(currentDigit) - &hC2C0), 2, 0), 2)
  23.         else
  24.             select case asc(currentDigit)
  25.                 case cDoubleQuote: currentDigit = escapeJSONSquence(currentDigit)
  26.                 case cRevSolidus: currentDigit = escapeJSONSquence(currentDigit)
  27.                 case cSolidus: currentDigit = escapeJSONSquence(currentDigit)
  28.             end select
  29.         end if
  30.         escapeJSON = escapeJSON & currentDigit
  31.     next
  32. end function
  33.  
  34. function escapeJSONSquence(digit)
  35.     escapeJSONSquence = "u00" + right(padLeft(hex(asc(digit)), 2, 0), 2)
  36. end function 
  37.  
  38. function padLeft(value, totalLength, paddingChar)
  39.     padLeft = right(clone(paddingChar, totalLength) & value, totalLength)
  40. end function
  41.  
  42. public function clone(byVal str, n)
  43.     for i = 1 to n : clone = clone & str : next
  44. end function
  45. [/asp]
  46.  
  47. So now we should be able to escape the strings for JSON like this and no error should occur...
  48.  
  49. [asp]
  50. <script>
  51.   alert({foo:"<%= escapeJSON("some va""lue") %>"}.foo);
  52. </script>

This stuff has been tested and works for all characters so everything can be transfered with JSON now ;) I would suggest to group the whole functions into a class called JSON with a method escape() just for a nicer use. In my case its in a utility class StringOperations where I have several string manipulation methods. If you are interested you can download the full String class also which include the JSON escaping method:

StringOperations 0.9 (StringOperations Documentation)

8 comments on “JSON character escaping function in classic ASP

  1. Thanks a ton! I was going crazy coz wasn’t finding one suitable solution for ASP. Thanks again!

  2. Hi Michal,

    I’m having a problem converting the string back to special characters. When I get data from JSON and the strings are escaped, and I need to put that data into a form field the uuxx numbers are still there instead of the special characters. Do you have, or know of any function that reverses this process?

    Erik

  3. I rate this code: FLUNK.

    Your code:
    - Escapes characters unnecessarily (such as forward slash).
    - Escapes using more characters than needed, making the JSON longer (using hex notation instead of simple backslash-escaping).
    - Escapes every high Ascii character as u00__ which is not only longer than x__ but completely ignores the first byte of Unicode characters, making the result meaningless.
    - Has goofy stuff like “- &hC2C0″ which is clearly an undefined operation to perform on Unicode between &hC380 and &hC3BF. Perhaps you’re matching character sets to character sets, but this is something you’re supposed to solve with fonts, not subtraction to turn one code into another. To make your preposterous claim “This stuff has been tested and works for all characters so everything can be transfered with JSON now” valid, you have to rip out this junk. I don’t care how elaborate a character map you use, you’ll still be altering characters, hardly the desire of most people who want to send Unicode characters through JSON from ASP.

    Here is my version:

    Function JSONEscape(json)
    Dim Pos
    Dim Char
    Dim Code
    JSONEscape = “”
    If IsNull(json) Then Exit Function
    For Pos = 1 To Len(json)
    Char = Mid(json, Pos, 1)
    Code = AscW(Char)
    If (Code >= 32 And Code <= 127) And Code 34 And Code 39 And Code 60 And Code 92 Then ‘printable, plus skip ‘” and to avoid false HTML tags 0 Then
    JSONEscape = JSONEscape & “” & VBA.Mid(“bfnOrtv’”"”, Code, 1)
    Else
    Code = AscW(Char)
    If (Code >= 0 And Code <= 255) Then ‘escape nonprinting, high ascii, and < characters (to avoid false HTML tags)’
    JSONEscape = JSONEscape & “x” & VBA.Right(“0″ & Hex(Code), 2)
    Else
    JSONEscape = JSONEscape & “u” & VBA.Right(“000″ & Hex(Code), 4)
    End If
    End If
    End If
    Next
    End Function[/as]

  4. For want of a preview function, a p was lost :)

    1. Function JSONEscape(json)
    2.    Dim Pos
    3.    Dim Char
    4.    Dim Code
    5.    JSONEscape = ""
    6.     If IsNull(json) Then Exit Function
    7.    For Pos = 1 To Len(json)
    8.       Char = Mid(json, Pos, 1)
    9.       Code = AscW(Char)
    10.       If (Code >= 32 And Code <= 127) And Code  34 And Code  39 And Code  60 And Code  92 Then 'printable, plus skip '" and to avoid false HTML tags  0 Then
    11.             JSONEscape = JSONEscape & "" & VBA.Mid("bfnOrtv'""", Code, 1)
    12.          Else
    13.             Code = AscW(Char)
    14.             If (Code >= 0 And Code <= 255) Then 'escape nonprinting, high ascii, and < characters (to avoid false HTML tags)'
    15.                JSONEscape = JSONEscape & "x" & VBA.Right("0" & Hex(Code), 2)
    16.             Else
    17.                JSONEscape = JSONEscape & "u" & VBA.Right("000" & Hex(Code), 4)
    18.             End If
    19.          End If
    20.       End If
    21.    Next
    22. End Function
    • I know this is a very old thread but to whom it may concern (I know somebody is going to read this and think a, just what I need..)..

      Emtucifor your code is “FLUNKED”.. How can you publish this forever to be read on the internet.. The replacements in your string do not even work.. All special characters like horizontal TAB are Null.

      Ik know ASP != VB but I needed it in VB and cleaned it up, included it in my Anything2JSON class..

      I’m using a quick and dirty array, only initializing it once (you should use this as a class!).

      It can replace the specials to UNICODE, optionally you can choose to replace , ‘ [ ] { } ; too.

      You can encode any Scripting.Dictionary object, VB array, String, Integer, Double etc. etc. to a valid JSON format, it it is not going to look pretty, it does not do indenting, but it will be valid!

      String to UNICODE is not internal in the Anything2JSON functions, first use JSONEscape if you want to use special characters.

      This code is far from perfect and should be treated as an Alpha release. You are free to do anything you want with it according to the MIT license.

      Drop a line if you spot a bug or something..


      '##################################################################
      ' Class: cAnyThing2JSON v0.1
      ' Class for encoding strings to JSON in compatible UNICODE text
      ' Written by removed apon request
      ' License CC:
      '
      ' Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
      ' obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
      ' files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
      ' restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
      ' copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
      ' copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
      ' Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
      ' conditions:
      '
      ' The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
      ' included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
      '
      ' THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
      ' EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
      ' OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
      ' NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
      ' HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
      ' WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
      ' FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
      ' OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
      '##################################################################

      Private Exceptions() As String
      Private UNICODE_REP(8 To 125) As String

      Private Sub Class_Initialize()

      ReDim Exceptions(0) As String
      errIndex = 0

      ' Unicode replacements for JSON (including characters that do not NEED to be replaced)
      UNICODE_REP(8) = "b"
      UNICODE_REP(9) = "t"
      UNICODE_REP(10) = "n"
      UNICODE_REP(12) = "f"
      UNICODE_REP(13) = "r"
      UNICODE_REP(34) = "" & Chr(34)

      ' These are only replaced if you supply Extra=True to the JSONEscape function
      UNICODE_REP(39) = "'"
      UNICODE_REP(44) = ","
      UNICODE_REP(59) = ";"
      UNICODE_REP(91) = "["
      UNICODE_REP(92) = "\"
      UNICODE_REP(93) = "]"
      UNICODE_REP(123) = "{"
      UNICODE_REP(125) = "}"

      End Sub

      Function JSONEscape(ByVal strJSON As String, Optional ByVal Extras As Boolean = False) As String

      'Function esccapes according to the JSON specification.
      'See: http://www.
      'Highlights:
      ' Escapes following with a reverse solidus ():
      ' - quotation mark (")
      ' - reverse solidus ()
      ' - forward solidus (/)
      ' - backspace (BS)
      ' - formfeed (FF)
      ' - newline (LF)
      ' - carriage return (CR)
      ' - horizontal tab (TAB)
      ' Does NOT escape u0001 hexademical UNICODE characters, you should do this yourself if you use them!
      ' You can use Scripting.RegExp's Replace function to replace these by: ^(.*)(u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})(.*)$ => $1$2$3

      Dim Pos As Long
      Dim Code As Integer
      Dim Char As String

      For Pos = 1 To Len(strJSON)
      Char = Mid(strJSON, Pos, 1)
      Code = AscW(Char)
      Select Case Code
      ' Specials according to JSON spec
      Case 34, 92, 47, 8, 12, 10, 13, 9
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & UNICODE_REP(Code)
      ' Specials used in JSON format
      Case 39, 44, 59, 91, 93, 123, 125
      ' If Extras is true then do more escaping: specials for JSON syntax for fragile json decoders.
      If Extras Then
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & UNICODE_REP(Code)
      Else
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & Char
      End If
      ' Normal characters -> pass trough
      Case 32 To 126
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & Char
      ' Anything not caught before but in range of plain ASCII
      Case 0 To 255
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & "x" & Right("0" & Hex(Code), 2)
      ' Anything not caught before, thus out of ASCII range
      Case Else
      JSONEscape = JSONEscape & "u" & Right("000" & Hex(Code), 4)
      End Select
      Next Pos
      End Function

      ' Transform a Scripting.Dictionary to JSON
      Public Function Dict2JSON(ByVal objDict As Dictionary, Optional ByVal Pretty As Boolean = False) As String

      Dim strKey As Variant
      Dim CrLf As String
      If Pretty Then crfl = vbCrLf

      ' For each object in the dictionary find it's type, parse it, return it, using Anything2JSON()
      For Each strKey In objDict
      ' Concatenating the objects into a JSON formatted string
      Dict2JSON = Dict2JSON & Chr(34) & strKey & Chr(34) & ":" & Anything2JSON(objDict(strKey), Pretty) & "," & CrLf
      Next strKey

      ' Remove the extra trailing ","
      Dict2JSON = Left(Dict2JSON, Len(Dict2JSON) - 1)

      ' Wrap in JSON's object wrappers
      Dict2JSON = "{" & CrLf & Dict2JSON & CrLf & "}"

      End Function

      Private Function Array2JSON(ByVal arrIN As Variant, Optional ByVal Pretty As Boolean = False) As String
      Dim arrItem As Variant
      Dim CrLf As String
      If Pretty Then crfl = vbCrLf

      ' For each var in the array find it's type, parse it, return it, using Anything2JSON()
      For i = LBound(arrIN) To UBound(arrIN)
      ' Concatenating the objects into a JSON formatted string
      Array2JSON = Array2JSON & Anything2JSON(arrIN(i), Pretty) & "," & CrLf
      Next i

      ' Remove the extra trailing ","
      Array2JSON = Left(Array2JSON, Len(Array2JSON) - 1)

      ' Wrap in JSON's array wrappers
      Array2JSON = "[" & CrLf & Array2JSON & CrLf & "]"

      End Function

      ' Find out what the type of the object (objIN) is, parse it using the appropriate function and return it.
      Public Function Anything2JSON(ByRef objIN As Variant, Optional ByVal Pretty As Boolean = False) As String
      Select Case TypeName(objIN)
      Case "Dictionary"
      Anything2JSON = Dict2JSON(objIN, Pretty)
      Case "String()", "Variant()", "Object()", "Dictionary()"
      Anything2JSON = Array2JSON(objIN, Pretty)
      Case "String"
      Anything2JSON = Chr(34) & objIN & Chr(34)
      Case "Null", "DBNull", "Nothing", "Empty"
      Anything2JSON = "null"
      Case "Boolean"
      Anything2JSON = IIf(objIN, "true", "false")
      Case "Integer", "Double", "Long", "ULong", "UShort", "UInteger", "Decimal"
      Anything2JSON = objIN
      Case "Date"
      Anything2JSON = Format(objIN, "yyyy-mm-dd")
      Case Else
      Exception ("Unknown or unimplemented object: " & TypeName(objIN))
      End Select
      End Function

      ' Used for exception handling, only 1 is actually implemented,
      ' only included for the sake of a complete picture.
      Private Function Exception(strException)
      ReDim Preserve Exceptions(UBound(Exceptions)) As String
      Exceptions(UBound(Exceptions)) = strException
      Debug.Print "Exception in cAnything2JSON: " & strException
      End Function

      ' Return an array of Errors/Exceptions
      Public Function getError() As Variant
      getError = getExceptions()
      End Function

      ' Return an array of Errors/Exceptions
      Public Function getExceptions() As Variant
      getExceptions = Exceptions
      End Function

  5. And the second comment in the last If statement should be removed. It is a leftover after reordering the code to hit most likely conditions first in the loop.

  6. Control character 31 isn’t escaped.

    To fix: “asc(currentDigit) <&h1F" needs to be "asc(currentDigit) <=&h1F"

    Thanks alot for this code!

  7. you may simplify with tmp var ;)


    class JsonTool
    public function escape(val)
    dim i,l,currentDigit, ascii

    l = len( val )
    for i = 1 to l
    currentDigit = mid(val, i, 1)
    ascii = asc( currentDigit )
    if &h00 <= ascii and ascii <= &h1F then
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii)
    elseif &hC280 <= ascii and ascii <= &hC2BF then
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii - &hC200) ' "u00" + right(padLeft(hex(ascii ), 2, 0), 2)
    elseif &hC380 <= ascii and ascii <= &hC3BF then
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii - &hC2C0 ) ' "u00" + right(padLeft(hex(ascii - &hC2C0), 2, 0), 2)
    elseif ascii = &h22 then 'cDoubleQuote
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii)
    elseif ascii = &h5C then 'cRevSolidus
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii)
    elseif ascii = &h2F then 'cSoliduscSolidus
    currentDigit = escapeSequence(ascii)
    end if
    escape = escape & currentDigit
    next
    end function

    private function escapeSequence(ascii)
    escapeSequence = "u00" & right(padLeft(hex(ascii), 2, 0), 2)
    end function

    private function padLeft(value, totalLength, paddingChar)
    padLeft = right(clone(paddingChar, totalLength) & value, totalLength)
    end function

    private function clone(byVal str, n)
    for i = 1 to n : clone = clone & str : next
    end function
    end class