How to remove backslash escaping from a javascript var?

Question

I have this var

var x = "";

Which is

But I need

How can I "unescape" this var to remove all escaping characters?

user_6198746 · Answer

If you want to remove backslash escapes, but keep escaped backslashes, here's what you can do:

"a\b\\c\\\\\d".replace(/(?:$.))/g, '$1');

Results in: ab\c\d.

Explanation of replace(/(?:\(.))/g, '$1'):

/(?:$ is a non-capturing group to capture the leading backslash

/(.) is a capturing group to capture what's following the backslash

/g global matching: Find all matches, not just the first.

$1 is referencing the content of the first capturing group (what's following the backslash).