what is the c# equivalent to javascript's unescape()?

Question

I am trying to analyse some JavaScript, and one line is

var x = unescape("%u4141%u4141 ......");

with lots of characters in form %uxxxx.

I want to rewrite the JavaScript in c# but can't figure out the proper function to decode a string of characters like this. I've tried

HttpUtility.HTMLDecode("%u4141%u4141");

but this did not change these characters at all.

How can I accomplish this in c#?

You are mixing up two different escaping/unescaping methods: one is for entities inside a HTML file, the other is for URLs, i.e. addresses. — Philip Daubmeier, Jun 30 '12 at 14:55

dlev · Answer 1 · 2011-07-26T17:19:56.693

14

You can use UrlDecode:

string decoded = HttpUtility.UrlDecode("%u4141%u4141");

decoded would then contain "䅁䅁".

As other have pointed out, changing the % to \ would work, but UrlDecode is the preferred method, since that ensures that other escaped symbols are translated correctly as well.

edited Jul 26 '11 at 17:19

answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:13

dlev

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score 4 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

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You need HttpUtility.UrlDecode. You shouldn't really be using escape/unescape in most cases nowadays, you should be using things like encodeURI/decodeURI/encodeURIComponent.

When are you supposed to use escape instead of encodeURI / encodeURIComponent?

This question covers the issue of why escape/unescape are a bad idea.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

Community

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answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:17

andynormancx

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score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '12 at 14:46

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You can call bellow method to achieve the same effect as Javascript escape/unescape method

Microsoft.JScript.GlobalObject.unescape();

Microsoft.JScript.GlobalObject.escape();

edited Jun 30 '12 at 14:46

nhahtdh

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answered Jun 30 '12 at 14:23

hs.jalilian

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 29 '13 at 14:31

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edit the web.config the following parameter:

< globalization requestEncoding="iso-8859-15" responseEncoding="utf-8" >responseHeaderEncoding="utf-8" in < system.web >

edited Nov 29 '13 at 14:31

Stephane Rolland

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answered Nov 29 '13 at 14:10

dougstefe

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:14

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Change the % signs to backslashes and you have a C# string literal. C# treats \uxxxx as an escape sequence, with xxxx being 4 digits.

answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:14

Rag

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Note: this only applies if the string is a hardcoded literal in the ops source code. Maybe he wants to decode some strings that are input into the program. Then ``HttpUtility.UrlDecode`` is the way to go... – Philip Daubmeier Jun 30 '12 at 15:02

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:16

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In basic string usage you can initiate string variable in Unicode: var someLine="\u4141"; If it is possible - replace all "%u" with "\u".

answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:16

DrAlligieri

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Note: this only applies if the string is a hardcoded literal in the ops source code. Maybe he wants to decode some strings that are input into the program. Then ``HttpUtility.UrlDecode`` is the way to go... – Philip Daubmeier Jun 30 '12 at 15:03

what is the c# equivalent to javascript's unescape()?

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