STRING_ESCAPE()

The STRING_ESCAPE Transact-SQL function escapes special characters in texts and returns text with escaped characters.

Signature

STRING_ESCAPE( text , type )

Parameters

  • text — A nvarchar expression representing the object that should be escaped.
  • type — Escaping rules that will be applied. Currently the value supported is `'json'`.

Examples

SELECT STRING_ESCAPE('a"b/c', 'json') AS escaped;
escaped

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
a\"b\/c
SELECT STRING_ESCAPE('\   /  
\\    "     ', 'json') AS escapedText;
\\   \/  \n\\\\    \"

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Available on

  • SQL Server 2017 and later
  • Azure SQL Database
  • Fabric SQL database

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Signature and description adapted from the Microsoft SQL documentation, used under the CC BY 4.0. SQL Server and Azure are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. This page is not affiliated with Microsoft.