asp .net query string encoding and decoding

Question

I type the following url into my web browser and press enter.

http://localhost/website.aspx?paymentID=6++7d6CZRKY%3D&language=English

Now in my code when I do HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["paymentID"],

I get 6 7d6CZRKY=

but when I do HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString.ToString() I see the following:

paymentID=6++7d6CZRKY%3D&language=English

The thing I want to extract the actual payment id that the user typed in the web browser URL. I am not worried as to whether the url is encoded or not. Because I know there is a weird thing going on here %3D and + sign at the same time ! But I do need the actual + sign. Somehow it gets decoded to space when I do HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["paymentID"].

I just want to extract the actual payment ID that the user typed. What's the best way to do it?

Thank you.

MikeSmithDev · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-18 23:47:23Z

9

You'll need to encode the URL first, using URLEncode(). + in URL equals a space so needs to be encoded to %2b.

string paymentId = Server.UrlEncode("6++7d6CZRKY=");
// paymentId = 6%2b%2b7d6CZRKY%3d

And now

string result = Request.QueryString["paymentId"].ToString();
//result = 6++7d6CZRKY=

However

string paymentId = Server.UrlEncode("6  7d6CZRKY=");
//paymentId looks like you want it, but the + is a space -- 6++7d6CZRKY%3d

string result = Request.QueryString["paymentId"].ToString();
//result = 6 7d6CZRKY=

edited Nov 18, 2012 at 23:47

answered Nov 18, 2012 at 23:40

MikeSmithDev

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3 Comments

Varun Sharma Over a year ago

Thanks. I am not sure if the URL that is in HttpContext.Current.Request is encoded or not! So as of now I just wrote a function to extract the payment id value out of it (Francis's approach is using regular expression).

MikeSmithDev Over a year ago

Probably want to find that out. Other method is not recommended.

Varun Sharma Over a year ago

Actually the url which we receive is not in correct format. It has a + symbol in it and our client does mean that's its a plus symbol. They should have put %2B instead of +. And now we need to come up with some kind of hacky solution.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:08:29Z

2

There is some info on this here: Plus sign in query string.

But I suppose you could also use a regular expression to get your parameter out of the query string. Something like this:

string queryString = HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString.ToString();
string paramPaymentID = Regex.Match(queryString, "paymentID=([^&]+)").Groups[1].Value;

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:08

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 18, 2012 at 22:41

Francis Gagnon

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Comments

Basheer AL-MOMANI · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-31 12:22:07Z

2

I sent an Arabic text in my query string

and when I resieved this string it was Encoded

after Server.UrlDecode

 departmentName = Server.UrlDecode(departmentName);

it back again to arabic

I hope this help you

answered Aug 31, 2016 at 12:22

Basheer AL-MOMANI

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