Unicode Escape/Unescape

Overview

The `escape` action walks the input by code point and writes every character, including plain ASCII letters and spaces, as `\u` followed by four upper-case hex digits. A character above U+FFFF, such as most emoji, is written as its UTF-16 surrogate pair, two `\uXXXX` sequences in a row, so 😀 becomes `\uD83D\uDE00`. `character_count` counts code points, so that emoji counts as one. `unicode_points` lists each character with `char`, its escape in `unicode` (the full pair for astral characters) and its `codepoint` in `U+` form, such as `U+1F600`.

The `unescape` action recognises three forms: `\uXXXX` with exactly four hex digits, the braced `\u{1F600}` form with one to six digits, and `\xXX` with two. Anything else, including other backslash escapes like `\n`, is left as literal text. A braced value above U+10FFFF returns a 400. Surrogate pairs written as two `\uXXXX` sequences recombine into the original character. The response holds the result in `unescaped`, and `character_count` there is the JavaScript string length, which counts an emoji as two.

Any `action` other than `escape` is treated as unescape. The `unicode_points` breakdown is only produced by escape, and it is null on the Free plan.

Live Test Unicode Escape/Unescape API →

Endpoint

One host, one path per API. The block below shows this call in four languages; every one of them is the same HTTP request. Making requests covers the timeouts, retries and parameter rules that apply to all of them. The SDKs wrap the same call in a typed client.

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curl -X POST https://api.apiverve.com/v1/unicodeescape \
  -H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "text": "Hello World",
  "action": "escape"
}'

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const res = await fetch('https://api.apiverve.com/v1/unicodeescape', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'x-api-key': 'your_api_key_here',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "text": "Hello World",
  "action": "escape"
}),
});

if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);

const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);

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import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/unicodeescape",
    headers={"x-api-key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={
    "text": "Hello World",
    "action": "escape"
},
    timeout=15,
)
res.raise_for_status()

print(res.json()["data"])

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"strings"
)

func main() {
	body := strings.NewReader(`{
  "text": "Hello World",
  "action": "escape"
}`)
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/unicodeescape", body)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "your_api_key_here")

	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

Replace your_api_key_here with the key from your dashboard. When the inputs arrive as a list rather than one at a time, batch requests run up to 200 of them through this same API in a single call.

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — there is no token exchange and no per-endpoint scope to configure. Authentication covers creating, rotating and revoking keys.

Parameters

Sent as JSON in the request body. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Response

Every API returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape. Response format covers the envelope, the other output formats and how premium fields are withheld.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "action": "escape",
    "original": "Hello World",
    "escaped": "\\u0048\\u0065\\u006C\\u006C\\u006F\\u0020\\u0057\\u006F\\u0072\\u006C\\u0064",
    "character_count": 11,
    "unicode_points": [
      {
        "char": "H",
        "unicode": "\\u0048",
        "codepoint": "U+0048"
      },
      {
        "char": "e",
        "unicode": "\\u0065",
        "codepoint": "U+0065"
      },
      {
        "char": "l",
        "unicode": "\\u006C",
        "codepoint": "U+006C"
      },
      {
        "char": "l",
        "unicode": "\\u006C",
        "codepoint": "U+006C"
      },
      {
        "char": "o",
        "unicode": "\\u006F",
        "codepoint": "U+006F"
      },
      {
        "char": " ",
        "unicode": "\\u0020",
        "codepoint": "U+0020"
      },
      {
        "char": "W",
        "unicode": "\\u0057",
        "codepoint": "U+0057"
      },
      {
        "char": "o",
        "unicode": "\\u006F",
        "codepoint": "U+006F"
      },
      {
        "char": "r",
        "unicode": "\\u0072",
        "codepoint": "U+0072"
      },
      {
        "char": "l",
        "unicode": "\\u006C",
        "codepoint": "U+006C"
      },
      {
        "char": "d",
        "unicode": "\\u0064",
        "codepoint": "U+0064"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change. Error handling covers the full status list and which of them are worth retrying.

Use cases

JSON Processing

Escape Unicode characters in JSON strings for safe transmission and storage

Code Generation

Generate Unicode escape sequences for use in source code, configuration files, or string literals

Data Migration

Convert Unicode characters to escape sequences when migrating between systems with different encoding support

Debugging

View Unicode escape sequences of characters to debug encoding issues and identify problematic characters

Other ways to use Unicode Escape/Unescape

Set up Unicode Escape/Unescape on APIVerve, or reach the same source a different way. Your APIVerve account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

Related

More in Data Conversion: