Unterminated string constant

Question

My Description contains an apstrophe('). How to escape it.

<a href='javascript:select("<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(0), "'", "'") %>",
"<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(1), "'", "'") %>");' title="<%=selRpt%>">
<span class='img-view'></span></a>

"<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(1), "'", "'") %>" is the description part in my JSP Scriptlet which contains apstrophe(')

My HTML View

    <a href='javascript:select("JWCCA5",
"Worker's Compensation Form -  California Form 5020(New)");' 
title="Select Report"><span class='img-view'></span></a>

Answer 1

For reserved HTML characters you should use HTML entities. An apostrophe is then reprecented as ':

<a href='javascript:select(
  "<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(0), "'", "&#39;") %>", 
  "<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(1), "'", "&#39;") %>");' title="<%=selRpt%>"> 
<span class='img-view'></span></a>

Answer 2

Use \'

Inside a HTML tag, you need to turn the string into HTML entities, so the quote becomes '

Inside pure JavaScript, you could also escape the quote with a \'

Answer 3

Usually \' should work, but it seems that sometimes you need to use '' (double apostrophe).

Try this one:

<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(0), "'", "\'" %>

or:

<%= pageBean.replace(list.getColumn(0), "'", "''"

One of them should work (from my experience).

For attributes within HTML tags, I would use " (quotation mark) rather than ' (apostrophe).