Convert escaped Unicode character back to actual character

Question

I have the following value in a string variable in Java which has UTF-8 characters encoded like below

Dodd\u2013Frank 

instead of

Dodd–Frank 

(Assume that I don't have control over how this value is assigned to this string variable)

Now how do I convert (encode) it properly and store it back in a String variable?

I found the following code

Charset.forName("UTF-8").encode(str); 

But this returns a ByteBuffer, but I want a String back.

Edit:

Some more additional information.

When I use System.out.println(str); I get

Dodd\u2013Frank 

I am not sure what is the correct terminology (UTF-8 or unicode). Pardon me for that.

Answer 1

try

str = org.apache.commons.lang3.StringEscapeUtils.unescapeJava(str); 

from Apache Commons Lang

Answer 2

java.util.Properties

You can take advantage of the fact that java.util.Properties supports strings with '\uXXXX' escape sequences and do something like this:

Properties p = new Properties(); p.load(new StringReader("key="+yourInputString)); System.out.println("Escaped value: " + p.getProperty("key")); 

Inelegant, but functional.

To handle the possible IOExeception, you may want a try-catch.

Properties p = new Properties(); try { p.load( new StringReader( "key=" + input ) ) ; } catch ( IOException e ) { e.printStackTrace(); } System.out.println( "Escaped value: " + p.getProperty( "key" ) );