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#81 — Case of hex digits in evaluation of JSON.stringify("\u000E") isn't precisely specified

• bug_id: 81
• creation_ts: 2011-03-26 23:23:00 -0700
• short_desc: Case of hex digits in evaluation of JSON.stringify("\u000E") isn't precisely specified
• delta_ts: 2015-10-03 18:51:52 -0700
• product: ECMA-262, Editions 5 and 5.1
• component: technical content
• version: other
• rep_platform: All
• op_sys: All
• bug_status: RESOLVED
• resolution: FIXED
• bug_severity: enhancement
• blocked: 160
• everconfirmed: true
• reporter: Jeff Walden (remove +beo to mail)
• assigned_to: Allen Wirfs-Brock
• cc: brterlso

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• commentid: 175
• comment_count: 0
• who: Jeff Walden (remove +beo to mail)
• bug_when: 2011-03-26 23:23:10 -0700

Per spec which is correct behavior?

assert(JSON.stringify("\u000E") === '"\\u000E"');
assert(JSON.stringify("\u000E") === '"\\u000e"');

The spec says this: "Let hex be the result of converting the numeric code unit value of C to a String of four hexadecimal digits." That seems to permit either -- but why do so? It's harder to test, and I can't think of a good reason why implementations could want to make different choices here.

Every browser I can test escapes to lowercase hex, so it seems best to require the produced hexadecimal digits to be lowercase.

I originally raised this on the es5-discuss list:

https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/es5-discuss/2011-March/003963.html

...receiving the response, "Unintentional under specification. You should file a bug at bugs.ecmascript.org":

https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/es5-discuss/2011-March/003964.html

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• commentid: 14765
• comment_count: 1
• who: Brian Terlson
• bug_when: 2015-10-03 18:51:52 -0700

Fixed in ES2015.