Title: deslash
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: August 20, 2026

---

# deslash( string $content ): string

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Filters for content to remove unnecessary slashes.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$content`stringrequired

The content to modify.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string The de-slashed content.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    function deslash( $content ) {
    	// Note: \\\ inside a regex denotes a single backslash.

    	/*
    	 * Replace one or more backslashes followed by a single quote with
    	 * a single quote.
    	 */
    	$content = preg_replace( "/\\\+'/", "'", $content );

    	/*
    	 * Replace one or more backslashes followed by a double quote with
    	 * a double quote.
    	 */
    	$content = preg_replace( '/\\\+"/', '"', $content );

    	// Replace one or more backslashes with one backslash.
    	$content = preg_replace( '/\\\+/', '\\', $content );

    	return $content;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.1/src/wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php#L2897)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.1/src/wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php#L2897-L2916)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/deslash/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [1.5.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/1.5.0/) | Introduced. |

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