How to Create a Raw String in JavaScript

Last updated on May 22, 2022

The static String raw() method is so named as we can use it to get the raw string form of template literals in JavaScript. This means that variable substitutions (e.g., ${num}) are processed but escape sequences like \n and \t are not.

For example:

const message = String.raw`\n is for newline and \t is for tab`;
console.log(message); // \n is for newline and \t is for tab

We can use a raw string to avoid the need to use double backslashes for file paths and improve readability.

For example, instead of:

const filePath = 'C:\\Code\\JavaScript\\tests\\index.js';
console.log(`The file path is ${filePath}`);    // The file path is C:\Code\JavaScript\tests\index.js

We can write:

const filePath = String.raw`C:\Code\JavaScript\tests\index.js`;
console.log(`The file path is ${filePath}`);    // The file path is C:\Code\JavaScript\tests\index.js

We can also use it to write clearer regular expressions that include the backslash character. For example, instead of:

const patternString = 'The (\\w+) is (\\d+)';
const pattern = new RegExp(patternString);

const message = 'The number is 100';
console.log(pattern.exec(message)); // ['The number is 100', 'number', '100']

We can write:

const patternString = String.raw`The (\w+) is (\d+)`;
const pattern = new RegExp(patternString);

const message = 'The number is 100';
console.log(pattern.exec(message)); // ['The number is 100', 'number', '100']

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How to Create a Raw String in JavaScript

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