Well, there doesn't seem to be anything built-in to .NET to allow you to do this. However, if you want to re-implement the PHP behavior in .NET, you can either white-box implement it by taking a look at the PHP source code, or black-box implement it by reading the PHP documentation of http_build_query and testing the function out on various inputs.
I took a black-box approach and created the following class:
/// <summary>
/// Helps up build a query string by converting an object into a set of named-values and making a
/// query string out of it.
/// </summary>
public class QueryStringBuilder
{
private readonly List<KeyValuePair<string, object>> _keyValuePairs
= new List<KeyValuePair<string, object>>();
/// <summary> Builds the query string from the given instance. </summary>
public static string BuildQueryString(object queryData, string argSeperator = "&")
{
var encoder = new QueryStringBuilder();
encoder.AddEntry(null, queryData, allowObjects: true);
return encoder.GetUriString(argSeperator);
}
/// <summary>
/// Convert the key-value pairs that we've collected into an actual query string.
/// </summary>
private string GetUriString(string argSeperator)
{
return String.Join(argSeperator,
_keyValuePairs.Select(kvp =>
{
var key = Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Key);
var value = Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Value.ToString());
return $"{key}={value}";
}));
}
/// <summary> Adds a single entry to the collection. </summary>
/// <param name="prefix"> The prefix to use when generating the key of the entry. Can be null. </param>
/// <param name="instance"> The instance to add.
///
/// - If the instance is a dictionary, the entries determine the key and values.
/// - If the instance is a collection, the keys will be the index of the entries, and the value
/// will be each item in the collection.
/// - If allowObjects is true, then the object's properties' names will be the keys, and the
/// values of the properties will be the values.
/// - Otherwise the instance is added with the given prefix to the collection of items. </param>
/// <param name="allowObjects"> true to add the properties of the given instance (if the object is
/// not a collection or dictionary), false to add the object as a key-value pair. </param>
private void AddEntry(string prefix, object instance, bool allowObjects)
{
var dictionary = instance as IDictionary;
var collection = instance as ICollection;
if (dictionary != null)
{
Add(prefix, GetDictionaryAdapter(dictionary));
}
else if (collection != null)
{
Add(prefix, GetArrayAdapter(collection));
}
else if (allowObjects)
{
Add(prefix, GetObjectAdapter(instance));
}
else
{
_keyValuePairs.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, object>(prefix, instance));
}
}
/// <summary> Adds the given collection of entries. </summary>
private void Add(string prefix, IEnumerable<Entry> datas)
{
foreach (var item in datas)
{
var newPrefix = String.IsNullOrEmpty(prefix)
? item.Key
: $"{prefix}[{item.Key}]";
AddEntry(newPrefix, item.Value, allowObjects: false);
}
}
private struct Entry
{
public string Key;
public object Value;
}
/// <summary>
/// Returns a collection of entries that represent the properties on the object.
/// </summary>
private IEnumerable<Entry> GetObjectAdapter(object data)
{
var properties = data.GetType().GetProperties();
foreach (var property in properties)
{
yield return new Entry()
{
Key = property.Name,
Value = property.GetValue(data)
};
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Returns a collection of entries that represent items in the collection.
/// </summary>
private IEnumerable<Entry> GetArrayAdapter(ICollection collection)
{
int i = 0;
foreach (var item in collection)
{
yield return new Entry()
{
Key = i.ToString(),
Value = item,
};
i++;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Returns a collection of entries that represent items in the dictionary.
/// </summary>
private IEnumerable<Entry> GetDictionaryAdapter(IDictionary collection)
{
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in collection)
{
yield return new Entry()
{
Key = item.Key.ToString(),
Value = item.Value,
};
}
}
}
The code is pretty self-explanatory, but it accepts a dictionary, an array, or an object. If it's an top-level object, it serialized the properties. If it's an array, each element is serialized with the appropriate array index. If it's a dictionary, the key/values are serialized. Arrays and Dictionary-values that contain other arrays or dictionaries are flattened, similar to PHPs behavior.
For example, the following:
QueryStringBuilder.BuildQueryString(new
{
Age = 19,
Name = "John&Doe",
Values = new object[]
{
1,
2,
new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "key1", "value1" },
{ "key2", "value2" },
}
},
});
// 0=1&1=2&2%5B0%5D=one&2%5B1%5D=two&2%5B2%5D=three&3%5Bkey1%5D=value1&3%5Bkey2%5D=value2
QueryStringBuilder.BuildQueryString(new object[]
{
1,
2,
new object[] { "one", "two", "three" },
new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "key1", "value1" },
{ "key2", "value2" },
}
}
);
Generates:
Age=19&Name=John%26Doe&Values%5B0%5D=1&Values%5B1%5D=2&Values%5B2%5D%5Bkey1%5D=value1&Values%5B2%5D%5Bkey2%5D=value2
which is:
Age=19&Name=John%26Doe&Values[0]=1&Values[1]=2&Values[2][key1]=value1&Values[2][key2]=value2
Age=19
Name=John&Doe
Values[0]=1
Values[1]=2
Values[2][key1]=value1
Values[2][key2]=value2
