CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netstringnamevaluecollectioncharacter-replacement
James Nicholls
James Nicholls

Reputation: 48

String whitespace replacement error when using string.join

Trying to join a list of strings together using string.join. When I use the Separator string " OR " the white spaces are being replaced with "+" which is breaking my targetUri string. Below is the code used to join.

  if (DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter == null)
        {
            return "http://000.000.00.00:8080/value/value/search/json?terms=value%20OR%20value&target=TEST2&maxResults=5";
        }

        var targetUri = "http://000.000.00.00:8080/value/value/search/json?";

        NameValueCollection termsString = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);

        if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.Keywords))
        {
            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.Author))
            {
                DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.Keywords += (" " + DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.Author);
            }

            IList<string> keywords = DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.Keywords.Split();

            termsString["terms"] = string.Join(" OR ", keywords);          
        }        

        targetUri += termsString.ToString();
        targetUri += "&target=TEST2&maxResults=";
        targetUri += DocumentSearchListViewModel.Filter.MaxNumberOfResults ?? "5";

        return targetUri;

I have done many searches on Google but haven't been able to find anything that talks about string.join replacing characters. And during my debugging I was able to narrow it down to on the termsString line as where the problem occurs.

Here is an actual example of the string I get out: terms=value1+OR+value2+OR+value3

How would I stop the white spaces from being replaced with + characters?

Cheers,

James

Upvotes: 0

Views: 388

Answers (1)

Alex Filipovici
Alex Filipovici

Reputation: 32561

In order to get the URL decoded value on the server side, you should use:

var encoded = "terms=value1+OR+value2+OR+value3";
var decoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlDecode(encoded);

@PanagiotisKanavos, regarding my previous suggestion of using %20 instead of space, take a look at this JS:

var uri1="terms=value1%20OR%20value2%20OR%20value3";
var uri2="terms=value1+OR+value+OR+value3";
document.write(decodeURIComponent(uri1));
document.write("<br/>");
document.write(decodeURIComponent(uri2));

If you run it, you'll see that encoding could be sensitive in some contexts.

Upvotes: -1

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