Converting HTML special characters in ASP.NET

Question

I am binding to a DropDownList as follows;

Sub bindGalleries(ByVal catID As Integer)
    ddlGalleries.DataSource = Galleries.GetGalleries(catID)
    ddlGalleries.DataTextField = "GalleryName"
    ddlGalleries.DataValueField = "GalleryID"
    ddlGalleries.DataBind()
End Sub

One of the items in the list is: 'Kültür & Sanat', which is displayed just right in the dropdownlist. But when I look at the source of the page, it is: Kültür & Sanat

How can I get the source to be exactly the same as the original string?

Note: my meta tag is: in master page..

Answer 1

The reason why you see those characters is because those characters are being htmlencoded upon saving into your source.

i.e.

YourSource = server.htmlEncode(value) 

or

YourSource = server.urlEncode

You can save it to its original form by using server.htmlDecode or by omitting the server.htmlEncode.

Answer 2

Try to put the proper charset in the heading portion of your page.

Example:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-16"/>

Answer 3

This should give you what you need:

Server.HtmlDecode("Kültür & Sanat");

Write a method to "sanitize" the items in the DDL and store them in an array. Then just bind to the array.

You can populate the DDL in a similar fashion.

Answer 4

You may be able to use backslashes to escape