regexUnnecessaryEscapes

Reports unnecessary escape sequences in regular expressions.

✅ This rule is included in the ts stylistic presets.

Backslashes (\) are only necessary in regular expressions to escape special characters. Using them on non-special characters does not change the regular expression. They are often at least visual noise and sometimes a sign of programmer error.

This rule reports escape sequences in regular expressions where the backslash is unnecessary.

Examples

Unnecessary Escape at Root

Characters that are not special regex metacharacters don’t need to be escaped.

❌ Incorrect

const pattern = /\a/;
const equals = /\=/;

✅ Correct

const pattern = /a/;
const equals = /=/;

Unnecessary Escape in Character Class

Inside a character class, most characters don’t need escaping.

❌ Incorrect

const pattern = /[\!]/;
const caret = /[a\^b]/;

✅ Correct

const pattern = /[!]/;
const caret = /[a^b]/;

Hyphen at Edge of Character Class

A hyphen at the start or end of a character class doesn’t need escaping.

❌ Incorrect

const pattern = /[\-ab]/;
const trailing = /[ab\-]/;

✅ Correct

const pattern = /[-ab]/;
const trailing = /[ab-]/;

Necessary Escapes

Some characters must be escaped to be treated literally.

✅ Correct

const dot = /\./;
const star = /\*/;
const bracket = /[\]]/;
const range = /[a\-b]/;

Options

This rule is not configurable.

When Not To Use It

If you prefer to escape characters for visual clarity even when not strictly necessary, you might want to disable this rule.

Further Reading

• MDN: Escaping
• ECMAScript specification: RegularExpressionLiteral

Equivalents in Other Linters

• ESLint: regexp/no-useless-escape
• Oxlint: eslint/no-useless-escape