Decoding string using HtmlDecode or Escape

Question

EDIT - Modified based on the answer:

okay here is what I modified based on the answer:

here is the string.

"November is Fruit&#39;s Fresh."

here is what I'm doing:

    static string EscapeCharacters(string txt)
    {
        string encodedTxt = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(txt);
        return HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(encodedTxt);
    }

    string _decodedTxt = EscapeCharacters("November is Fruit&#39;s Fresh.");

when it returns I'm still getting the same text November is Fruit's Fresh.

END EDIT

I tried using HttpUtility.HtmlDecode from System.Web and also tried using SecurityElement.Escape but it does not escapes anything correctly.

so I end-up writing my own replace method something like this:

    static string EscapeXMLCharacters(string txt)
    {
        string _txt = txt.Replace("&amp;", "&").Replace("&lt;", "<").Replace("&gt;", ">").Replace("&quot;", "\"").Replace("&apos;", "'").Replace("&#38;", "&").Replace("&#60;", "<").Replace("&#62;", ">").Replace("&#34;", "\\").Replace("&#39;", "'");
        return _txt;
    }

it does work in my situation but its hard to cover everything and in my situation I have some European characters like í``(í) or é (é)

Is there a utility method built-in .Net that take cares of any special characters?

try HTMLAgilityPack - htmlagilitypack.codeplex.com

terrybozzio
– terrybozzio

2013-11-07 15:01:35 +00:00
Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 15:01 — terrybozzio
– terrybozzio, Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 15:01

John Koerner · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-07 15:58:43Z

2

You can use HtmlEncode to encode the string and then you can use HtmlDecode to return the original value:

string x = "éí&";
string encoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(x);
Console.WriteLine(encoded);  //&#233;&#237;&amp;

string decoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(encoded);
Console.WriteLine(decoded);  //éí&

With your update, you just need to decode the string:

String decoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode("November is Fruit&#39;s Fresh.");
Console.WriteLine(decoded);   //November is Fruit's Fresh.

edited Nov 7, 2013 at 15:58

answered Nov 7, 2013 at 15:36

John Koerner

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4 Comments

Nick Kahn Over a year ago

I updated my question, I'm still getting the encoded value even though i encode and decode, please see my question.

John Koerner Over a year ago

@AbuHamzah See my update, but for this case, you just need to decode it.

Nick Kahn Over a year ago

Thanks and I have another string with &amp; is that even valid? this is driving me crazy and it should not be that difficult but looks like the data i am getting is bad?

John Koerner Over a year ago

&amp; is & encoded twice. If you decoded it twice, you would probably get the expected result.

Mohamed.Abdo · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-07 18:52:04Z

1

tagText = SecurityElement.Escape(tagText);

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.securityelement.escape.aspx

or

 System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode(textContent);

answered Oct 7, 2014 at 18:52

Mohamed.Abdo

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