Using JS - jQuery, how can I unescape html and put `quotes & <>` back in the string?

Question

Essentially I want to undo the escapeHTML() function I found below, after I used it.

function escapeHtml(unsafe) {
    return unsafe
         .replace(/&/g, "&")
         .replace(/</g, "&lt;")
         .replace(/>/g, "&gt;")
         .replace(/"/g, "&quot;")
         .replace(/'/g, "&#039;");
 }

function unescapeHtml(safe) {
    return safe
         .replace("&amp;", /&/g)
         .replace("&lt;", /</g)
         .replace( "&gt;", />/g)
         .replace("&quot;", /"/g)
         .replace("&#039;", /'/g);
 }


var a = escapeHtml("<div> yo & yo squirrl's </div>");
var b = unescapeHtml(a);
console.log(a);
console.log(b);//should log "<div> yo & yo squirrl's </div>"

I tried the obvious but no deal. http://jsfiddle.net/ej6bX/

Answer 1

You need to use

function unescapeHtml(safe) {
    return safe.replace(/&/g, '&')
        .replace(/&lt;/g, '<')
        .replace(/&gt;/g, '>')
        .replace(/&quot;/g, '"')
        .replace(/&#039;/g, "'");
}

---

A more clear approach using jQuery could be

function escapeHtml(unsafe) {
    return $('<div />').text(unsafe).html()
}

function unescapeHtml(safe) {
    return $('<div />').html(safe).text();
}

Demo: Fiddle

Answer 2

The second parameter of replace() should be string not regular expression

function unescapeHtml(safe) {
    return safe
         .replace(/&/g, "&")
         .replace(/&lt;/g, "<")
         .replace(/&gt;/g, ">")
         .replace(/&quot;/g, "\"")
         .replace(/&#039;/g, "'");
 }

Fiddle