Correct encoding when putting C# strings into javascript strings in asp.net-mvc views

Question

I have an asp.net-mvc view and I am generating a javascript array like this from my view model:

 var jsDict = new Array();
 <% foreach (var myEvent in Model.MyEvents) { %>
      jsDict['<%=myEvent.Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") %>'] = '<%=myEvent.Title %>';
 <% } %>

The issue is that in some cases

 myEvent.Title

has an apostrophe in it so it breaks the string.

For example

jsDict['2015-01-01'] = 'Test is my 'first' test';

what is the correct way to escape around the word first above to make this a valid array.

I tried to change it to double quotes instead of apostrophes

 jsDict["2015-01-01"] = "Test is my 'first' test";

which seems to work but I have a fear that some of the event Titles would have a double quote it in so I want a solution that works for both apostrophe and double quotes.

Answer 1

Escape the apostrophes as \', and also escape backslashes as \\:

jsDict['<%=myEvent.Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") %>'] = '<%=myEvent.Title.Replace("\\", "\\\\").Replace("'", "\\'") %>';

If the string can contain control characters, you need to replace them too, for example adding .Replace("\n", "\\n").