Html query string removal of unwanted characters

Question

I have a console application. I have to remove all the unwanted escape characters from an HTML query string. Here is my query string

string query="http://10.1.1.186:8085/PublicEye_common/Jurisdiction/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPublicEye_common%2fJurisdiction%2fprint.html%3f%257B%2522__type%2522%253A%2522xPad.Reports.ReportDetail%2522%252C%2522ReportTitle%2522%253A%25221%2522%252C%2522ReportFooter%2522%253A%25221%2522%252C%2522ReportHeader%2522%253A%25221%2522%252C%2522CommonFields%2522%253A%255B%255D%252C%2522Sections%2522%253A%255B%257B%2522SectionTitle%2522%253A%2522Sections%2522%252C%2522ShowTitleSection%2522%253Atrue%252C%2522SubSections%2522%253A%255B%257B%2522SubSectionTitle%2522%253A%2522Sub%2520Section%2522%252C%2522ShowTitleSubSection%2522%253Atrue%252C%2522FormGroups%2522%253A%255B%257B%2522FormGroupTitle%2522%253A%2522Form%2520Groups%2522%252C%2522ShowTitleFormGroup%2522%253Atrue%252C%2522FormFields%2522%253A%255B%257B%2522FormFieldTitle%2522%253A%2522Form%2520Fields%2522%252C%2522FormFieldValue%2522%253A%252212%2522%257D%255D%257D%255D%257D%255D%257D%255D%257D&%7B%22__type%22%3A%22xPad.Reports.ReportDetail%22%2C%22ReportTitle%22%3A%221%22%2C%22ReportFooter%22%3A%221%22%2C%22ReportHeader%22%3A%221%22%2C%22CommonFields%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22Sections%22%3A%5B%7B%22SectionTitle%22%3A%22Sections%22%2C%22ShowTitleSection%22%3Atrue%2C%22SubSections%22%3A%5B%7B%22SubSectionTitle%22%3A%22Sub%20Section%22%2C%22ShowTitleSubSection%22%3Atrue%2C%22FormGroups%22%3A%5B%7B%22FormGroupTitle%22%3A%22Form%20Groups%22%2C%22ShowTitleFormGroup%22%3Atrue%2C%22FormFields%22%3A%5B%7B%22FormFieldTitle%22%3A%22Form%20Fields%22%2C%22FormFieldValue%22%3A%2212%22%7D%5D%7D%5D%7D%5D%7D%5D%7D";

I tried the following:

string decode = System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode(query);

string decode2 =System.Net.WebUtility.UrlDecode(query);

string decode3=System.Web.HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenDecode(query).ToString();

None will give me the best results.

Answer 1

This worked for me:

string decode = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(Uri.UnescapeDataString(query));

HttpUtility is in the namespace System.Web. you might need to add the reference.

Output:

http://10.1.1.186:8085/PublicEye_common/Jurisdiction/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/PublicEye_common/Jurisdiction/print.html?{"__type":"xPad.Reports.ReportDetail","ReportTitle":"1","ReportFooter":"1","ReportHeader":"1","CommonFields":[],"Sections":[{"SectionTitle":"Sections","ShowTitleSection":true,"SubSections":[{"SubSectionTitle":"Sub Section","ShowTitleSubSection":true,"FormGroups":[{"FormGroupTitle":"Form Groups","ShowTitleFormGroup":true,"FormFields":[{"FormFieldTitle":"Form Fields","FormFieldValue":"12"}]}]}]}]}&{"__type":"xPad.Reports.ReportDetail","ReportTitle":"1","ReportFooter":"1","ReportHeader":"1","CommonFields":[],"Sections":[{"SectionTitle":"Sections","ShowTitleSection":true,"SubSections":[{"SubSectionTitle":"Sub Section","ShowTitleSubSection":true,"FormGroups":[{"FormGroupTitle":"Form Groups","ShowTitleFormGroup":true,"FormFields":[{"FormFieldTitle":"Form Fields","FormFieldValue":"12"}]}]}]}]}

Panagiotis Kanavos has made a good point in the comments:

The querystring part contains an encoded URL parameter (ReturnUrl), which means it had to be encoded as a data string in the first place. That's a stricter encoding that UrlEncoding