I'm trying to pass the output of a SQL Server exception to the client using the RegisterStartUpScript method of the MS ScriptManager. This works fine for some errors but when the exception contains single quotes the alert fails.

I dont want to only escape single quotes though - Is there a standard function i can call to escape any special chars for use in Javascript?

string scriptstring = "alert('" + ex.Message + "');";         
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this, this.GetType(), "Alert", scriptstring , true);

Thanks tpeczek, the code almost worked for me :) but with a slight amendment (the escaping of single quotes) it works a treat.

I've included my amended version here...

public class JSEncode
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Encodes a string to be represented as a string literal. The format
    /// is essentially a JSON string.
    /// 
    /// The string returned includes outer quotes 
    /// Example Output: "Hello \"Rick\"!\r\nRock on"
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="s"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string EncodeJsString(string s)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.Append("\"");
        foreach (char c in s)
        {
            switch (c)
            {
                case '\'':
                    sb.Append("\\\'");
                    break;
                case '\"':
                    sb.Append("\\\"");
                    break;
                case '\\':
                    sb.Append("\\\\");
                    break;
                case '\b':
                    sb.Append("\\b");
                    break;
                case '\f':
                    sb.Append("\\f");
                    break;
                case '\n':
                    sb.Append("\\n");
                    break;
                case '\r':
                    sb.Append("\\r");
                    break;
                case '\t':
                    sb.Append("\\t");
                    break;
                default:
                    int i = (int)c;
                    if (i < 32 || i > 127)
                    {
                        sb.AppendFormat("\\u{0:X04}", i);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        sb.Append(c);
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }
        sb.Append("\"");

        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

As mentioned below - original source: here