An escape character is an awful lot of fun in programming. It seem to have the ability to allow multiple dimensions where only one dimension is allowed. A disguise, a ruse, a ploy, almost always clever getting out of tight squeezes.

An encode function

Here is a function that I am very fond of

escapedString = 
encode(oldString, 
   escapeChar, 
   oldCharacter, 
   newCharacter);

The function will replace every old character with the new character with a preceding escape character. The function will also escape the escape character itself.

Allowing for multiple character translation

escapedString = 
encode(oldString, 
   escapeChar, 
   oldCharacterString, 
   newCharacterString);