I couldn't find any documentation or posts about this issue, so I am posting my solution in case anyone else is looking for it. I had this problem because I was not able to use zoho.crm.searchRecords function with values that had special characters in the search string.

Input: "Some (String) that [has] ,,,,, <special> characters!"

Desired Output: "Some \(String\) that \[has\] \,\,\,\,\, \<special\> characters\!"

*code starts*

// the string you have

Name = "Some (String) that [has] ,,,,, <special> characters!"

// special characters you need to account for, add to this list as needed

special_chars = ['(', ')', '<', '>', '[', ']', '{', '}', '!', ',', '.'];

// loop all special characters
for each char in special_chars
{
    // add escape character with an underscore to the special character. You need the underscore because you cannot close the quotes if you use "\"
    oldSpecial = "\_" + char;
    
    
    // remove the underscore
    oldSpecial = oldSpecial.replaceAll("_", "");
    
    // add two escape characters to the underscore. You need the underscore because you cannot close the quotes if you use "\"
    newSpecial = "\\_" + char;
    
    // remove the underscore
    newSpecial = newSpecial.replaceAll("_", "");   
    
    // replace the single escape character with a double escape character
    Name = Name.replaceAll(oldSpecial, newSpecial);

}

info Name

*code ends*

Now you can use the searchRecords function with a string that has special characters. Note that underscore does not need the escape character before it.