what is the c# equivalent to javascript's unescape()?

Question

I am trying to analyse some JavaScript, and one line is

var x = unescape("%u4141%u4141 ......"); 

with lots of characters in form %uxxxx.

I want to rewrite the JavaScript in c# but can't figure out the proper function to decode a string of characters like this. I've tried

HttpUtility.HTMLDecode("%u4141%u4141");

but this did not change these characters at all.

How can I accomplish this in c#?

Answer 1

You can use UrlDecode:

string decoded = HttpUtility.UrlDecode("%u4141%u4141");

decoded would then contain "䅁䅁".

As other have pointed out, changing the % to \ would work, but UrlDecode is the preferred method, since that ensures that other escaped symbols are translated correctly as well.

Answer 2

You need HttpUtility.UrlDecode. You shouldn't really be using escape/unescape in most cases nowadays, you should be using things like encodeURI/decodeURI/encodeURIComponent.

When are you supposed to use escape instead of encodeURI / encodeURIComponent?

This question covers the issue of why escape/unescape are a bad idea.