diff --git a/src/tokenize.cpp b/src/tokenize.cpp
index 7e73c5550..81ad1158c 100644
--- a/src/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/src/tokenize.cpp
@@ -4291,8 +4291,11 @@ std::string Tokenizer::simplifyString(const std::string &source)
                 // We will replace all other character as 'a'
                 // If that causes problems in the future, this can
                 // be improved. But for now, this should be OK.
+                int n = 1;
+                while (n < 2 && std::isxdigit(str[i+1+n]))
+                    ++n;
                 --i;
-                str.replace(i, 4, "a");
+                str.replace(i, 2 + n, "a");
             }
         }
         else if (MathLib::isOctalDigit(str[i]))
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index 0fd69b9f3..2612b4637 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -158,6 +158,8 @@ private:
         TEST_CASE(removeExceptionSpecification);
 
         TEST_CASE(gt);      // use "<" comparisons instead of ">"
+
+        TEST_CASE(simplifyString);
     }
 
 
@@ -2542,6 +2544,16 @@ private:
         ASSERT_EQUALS("; i < 10 ;", tokenizeAndStringify(";10>i;"));
     }
 
+
+    void simplifyString()
+    {
+        Tokenizer *tokenizer = 0;
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("\"abc\"", tokenizer->simplifyString("\"abc\""));
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("\"a\"", tokenizer->simplifyString("\"\\x3\""));
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("\"a\"", tokenizer->simplifyString("\"\\x33\""));
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("\"a3\"", tokenizer->simplifyString("\"\\x333\""));
+    }
+
 };
 
 REGISTER_TEST(TestTokenizer)