NameValueCollection to URL Query?

Question

I know i can do this

var nv = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(req.RawUrl);

But is there a way to convert this back to a url?

v         


        

Answer 1

Make an extension method that uses a couple of loops. I prefer this solution because it's readable (no linq), doesn't require System.Web.HttpUtility, and it handles duplicate keys.

public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection nvc)
{
    if (nvc == null) return string.Empty;

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    foreach (string key in nvc.Keys)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(key)) continue;

        string[] values = nvc.GetValues(key);
        if (values == null) continue;

        foreach (string value in values)
        {
            sb.Append(sb.Length == 0 ? "?" : "&");
            sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", Uri.EscapeDataString(key), Uri.EscapeDataString(value));
        }
    }

    return sb.ToString();
}

Example

var queryParams = new NameValueCollection()
{
    { "order_id", "0000" },
    { "item_id", "1111" },
    { "item_id", "2222" },
    { null, "skip entry with null key" },
    { "needs escaping", "special chars ? = &" },
    { "skip entry with null value", null }
};

Console.WriteLine(queryParams.ToQueryString());

Output

?order_id=0000&item_id=1111&item_id=2222&needs%20escaping=special%20chars%20%3F%20%3D%20%26