Decode HTML string where ampersands are encoded as \\x26

Question

I got a string from html like:

var htmlStr = " \\x26lt;span\\x26gt; \\x26lt;/span\\x26gt;";

I can't decode it to C# string like:

 <span> </span>

If I modify the string to

var htmlStr = " \x26lt;span\x26gt; \x26lt;/span\x26gt;";

It works good. But how can I do it by replacing string or others way?

BTW, I use Encoding.UTF8.

Given your example, replacing `\\x` with `\x` would work. Why does this not suffice? — npinti, Dec 30 '15 at 08:13
.Replace didn't worked ? You did assign it back rigth ? `htmlStr.Replace()` won't work. `htmlStr = htmlStr.Replace()` will. — Guillaume Beauvois, Dec 30 '15 at 08:20
@GuillaumeBeauvois Because \x is unrecognized escape sequence. — MichaelMao, Dec 30 '15 at 08:22
@dotctor It won't work. "\" is a part of escaped symbol and cannot be replaced this way. `htmlReplace("\\\\x", "\\x")` will find 0 occurences since there are no double slashes in original string. — Yeldar Kurmangaliyev, Dec 30 '15 at 08:23
@DovydasSopa I tried that before, not work, so I post a question there. — MichaelMao, Dec 30 '15 at 08:25
@DovydasSopa No error, but you can reference YeldarKurmangaliyev comment. — MichaelMao, Dec 30 '15 at 08:29

Mohit S · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-30T08:38:56.370

4

You do it like this

var htmlStr = "\\x26lt;span\\x26gt; \\x26lt;/span\\x26gt;";
// Take out the extra stars
var result = Regex.Replace(htmlStr, @"\*\*([^*]*)\*\*", "$1");   
// Unescape \x values
result = Regex.Replace(htmlStr,
                @"\\x([a-fA-F0-9]{2})", 
                match => char.ConvertFromUtf32(
                    Int32.Parse(match.Groups[1].Value, 
                    System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber)));
// Decode html entities
htmlStr = WebUtility.HtmlDecode(result);

The Output is

<span> </span>

edited Dec 30 '15 at 08:38

answered Dec 30 '15 at 08:28

Mohit S

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Hi, @MohitShrivastava this work fine, I can solve this problem by REG. But anyone know the decode problem? Always write reg is not a good solution right? – MichaelMao Dec 30 '15 at 08:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

1

Already answered here: How can I decode HTML characters in C#?

In short, you can use HttpUtility.HtmlDecode or WebUtility.HtmlDecode

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

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answered Dec 30 '15 at 08:21

eocron

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I can decode the `\x26lt;` but I cant decode `\\x26lt;` – MichaelMao Dec 30 '15 at 08:23
Just replace it: htmlStr.Replace("\\\\x","\\x"); – eocron Dec 30 '15 at 08:32

Decode HTML string where ampersands are encoded as \\x26

2 Answers2