Escaping left square barcket

Here is the  PHP code
toolTips .= "Text_$id=[\"$shortDescription\",\"$longDescription\"];\n";

Here is what is in the template
[var.toolTips;htmlconv=no;noerr]

Here is what is rendered
Text_38=["",""];

In otherwords since this is actually a javascript array I am outputting I need the "left square bracket". Is there wome way to accomplish this.

I need to build the Javascript array in the PHP code not in the template

Thanks
Gary

Just found the answer in another post