How can I escape special character when I get element by id

Question

I get to_user_id from another function

example

to_user_name = user.name to_user_name = user name

If I coding like this it not working it can't find id="chat_history_user.name" or id="chat_history_user name"because it has special character "." , " "

  function  fetch_chat_history(to_user_name){
            $.ajax({
                url:"message_list_op.php",
                method:"POST",
                data:{
                    get_chat_history:1,
                    to_user_id:to_user_name
                },
                success: function(data){
                    $('#chat_history_'+to_user_name).html(data);
                    auto_scroll();
                }
            })
    
    }

I try to use $('#chat_history_'+escape(to_user_name)).html(data); It's not working because it's changed my value like user name to user%20name