Problems using a StringBuilder to construct HTML in C#

Question

I have this line of code that forms an html string:

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
builder.Append("<a href='#' onclick=");
builder.Append((char)22); //builder.Append('\"');
builder.Append("diagnosisSelected('" + obj.Id + "', '" +obj.Name + "')");
builder.Append((char)22);
builder.Append(" >" +  obj.Name + "</a>");

In the browser I get

<a href='#' onclick=\"diagnosisSelected('id', 'text')\" >some text here</a>

and I get an error because of \". How can I output a "?

I think part of your trouble is that " has the ASCII value 0x22 (hexadecimal), not 22 (decimal). — Michael Myers
– Michael Myers ♦, Commented Dec 28, 2009 at 18:58
What is the value of diagn.Name gives that output? My first guess would be "text", but that doesn't seem consistent with the link text. Are you sure this code is running? — Mark Byers
– Mark Byers, Commented Dec 28, 2009 at 18:59

x0n · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-28 01:13:29Z

11

It's funny how many times I see people use StringBuilder yet completely miss the point of them. There's another method on StringBuilder called AppendFormat which will help you a lot here:

builder.AppendFormat("<a href='#' onclick=\"foo('{0}','{1}')\">{2}</a>", var1, var2, var3);

Hope this helps,

edited Sep 28, 2011 at 1:13

user142162

answered Dec 28, 2009 at 18:57

x0n

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3 Comments

No Refunds No Returns Over a year ago

or @"<a href='#' onclick=""foo('{0}','{1}')"">{2}</a>" if the backslashes look as goofy to you as they do to me.

x0n Over a year ago

I'm not a fan of the doubled-up quotes simply because it annoys resharper too much :)

Eng. Samer T Over a year ago

AppendFormat is useful when the goal is to insert formatted string at the end of current "builder" string value, but what to do to insert formatted string at the beginning ? I am using builder.insert(0,str) so in this case how to add str as formatted html string?

Jason Williams · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-28 18:56:51Z

5

Use a \"

Quotes are special characters, so they have to be "escaped" by putting a backslash in front of them.

i.e. instead of

builder.Append((char)22);

use

builder.Append("\"");

answered Dec 28, 2009 at 18:56

Jason Williams

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2 Comments

CoffeeCode Over a year ago

a pass the string as a Json, and the result is still \", and i had the same error when appending \"

Jason Williams Over a year ago

In that case it could be that something between building the string and emitting it to the output HTML is 'escaping' the quotes for you. It's probably best if you post the code you're using to output the text so people can try to see where it may be being escaped.

jakebasile · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-28 18:56:35Z

2

Inside of a double quoted string, a \ is an escape character. To insert just a ", you would use "\"".

answered Dec 28, 2009 at 18:56

jakebasile

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Comments

Hiyasat · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-28 19:01:36Z

1

Replace the following line:

builder.Append((char)22);

with

builder.Append("\"");

answered Dec 28, 2009 at 19:01

Hiyasat

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