asp .net query string encoding and decoding

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.

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

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=

Method 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;

Method 3

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

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0