Ascii encode dodgy characters in a given string

asciiEncode.js

/**
 * replaces non-db safe characters with ascii escaped sequences
 * @param {string} string to ascii escape
 */

function asciiEncode(string) {
    // get an array of dodgy characters
    var arr_replace = string.match(/[^a-z0-9 _-~#;]/ig);
    // loop over characters to replace if matches returned
    arr_replace && arr_replace.forEach(function (replace) {
        var re = new RegExp( replace , 'g');
        // replace with ascii encoded character 
        string = string.replace(re, '&#' + replace.charCodeAt(0) + ';');
    });
    return string;
}