standard c library for escaping a string

Question

Is there a standard C library function to escape C-strings?

For example, if I had the C string:

char example[] = \"first line\\nsecond line: \\\"inne         


        

Answer 1

You just mentioned that you wanted to print the string.

char example[] = "first line\nsecond line: \"inner quotes\"";
size_t len = strlen(example);
size_t i;

static const char *simple = "\\\'\"";
static const char *complex = "\a\b\f\n\r\t\v";
static const char *complexMap = "abfnrtv";

for (i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
    char *p;
    if (strchr(simple, example[i]))
    {
        putchar('\\');
        putchar(example[i]);
    }
    else if ((p = strchr(complex, example[i]))
    {
        size_t idx = p - complex;
        putchar('\\');
        putchar(complexMap[idx]);
    }
    else if (isprint(example[i]))
    {
        putchar(example[i]);
    }
    else
    {
        printf("\\%03o", example[i]);
    }
}