Replace function not working

[techbytes]

In my project,iam passing file path as a parameter to a javascript function.

On replacing the separator with escape character, iam passing this parameter to another function that is called in my previous function.
But in my second function, iam getting the blank spaces without the separator.

function linkFolderHTML(isTextLink) 
{ 
  var docW = "";
    
    

    var str =this.hreference; //PATH "E:\XX\test";
    var xy = str.replace('\\','\\\\');
    
  if (this.hreference) 
  {
     
	if (USEFRAMES)
           
	 // docW = docW + "<a href='" + this.hreference + "' TARGET=\"_self\" "
            docW = docW + "<a href='javascript:ajaxDisplay(\""+xy+"\",\""+this.getID()+"\")' TARGET=\"_self\" "
	else
	//  docW = docW + "<a href='" + this.hreference + "' TARGET=\"_self\" "
            docW = docW + "<a href='javascript:ajaxDisplay(\""+xy+"\",\""+this.getID()+"\");' TARGET=\"_self\" "
        
    if (isTextLink) {
        docW += "id=\"itemTextLink"+this.id+"\" ";
    }

    docW = docW + ">"
  } 
  else 
    docW = docW + "<a>" 
  return docW;
} 



 function ajaxDisplay(path,id)
{
  alert(path); //iam getting "E:XX test"
  searchReq.open('GET','../jsppages/displaylist.jsp?path='+pathx);
  // searchReq.open('GET','../jsppages/treeview.jsp?mode=display&path='+pathx);
    searchReq.onreadystatechange = function()
            {
              DisplayReply(divid);
            };
        searchReq.send(null);

}

[Dormilich]

if this.hreference is assigned "E:\XX\test "; then the replace statement won’t work because in str the escaping is already executed, i.e. str = "E:XX est";. use encodeURICompon ent() to prepare the string for URL transmission.