Rather than creating some other util global, just extend underscore.js with any additional methods you want.

JS Util solution using underscore.js

// If you don't use underscore.js, use it (http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/)
// Then, use underscore's mixin method to extend it with all your other utility methods
// like so:
_.mixin({
    escapeHtml: function () {
        return this.replace(/&/g,'&')
            .replace(/>/g,'>')
            .replace(/</g,'&lt;')
            .replace(/"/g,'&quot;')
            .replace(/'/g,'&#39;');
    },

    otherFunc: function () {
        // etc, etc.
    }
});

// simple. but. handy.

__.myFunction()

+1 for __.myFunction()

BTW, I created a library with many utility functions (similar to the ones present on underscore) but instead of adding every single method inside the same "namespace" we have individual modules for each method - so you can load only what you need or a full package at once - and since it's written in the AMD format it doesn't pollute the global namespace. IMHO that is a better approach and also way more scalable since we can add more methods to the lib without worrying about file size... The era of a single global namespace is definitely over to me, AMD is the future.

This is an old post, but just an fyi that backbone uses underscore and has an escape feature. I checked the backbone source and it uses the escape function from underscore:

_.escape = function(string) {
return (''+string).replace(/&/g, '&').replace(/</g, '<').replace(/>/g, '>').replace(/"/g, '"').replace(/'/g, ''').replace(///g,'/');
};

So this mixin is no longer needed.

Also what's this nonsense from @millermedeiros on not extending objects you don't own? I understand why its horrible to extend the native DOM, but libraries like underscore and jQuery were made to be extended. In your uncompressed javascript source files you actually place the additional plugins or "mixins" under to signify that they are additions. Even as a new developer on a project, it makes complete sense.

Yap, @krunkasaurus (lol, I love the name) is right, Underscore already has _.escape and the edge version has _.unescape too.

You can also use Lo-Dash, a drop-in replacement for Underscore delivering performance, bug fixes, and additional features to make a custom build and embed it directly in your project like (BonsaiJS)[http://bonsaijs.org/].

perfect! just what I was looking for. Thanks!