HttpUtility Class (System.Web)

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

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.NET Framework Class Library

HttpUtility Class

Provides methods for encoding and decoding URLs when processing Web requests. This class cannot be inherited.

Namespace: System.Web
Assembly: System.Web (in System.Web.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public NotInheritable Class HttpUtility

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As HttpUtility

public sealed class HttpUtility

Visual C++

public ref class HttpUtility sealed

JScript

public final class HttpUtility

Remarks

The HttpUtility class is used internally by the HttpServerUtility class, whose methods and properties are exposed through the intrinsic ASP.NET Server object. Additionally, the HttpUtility class contains encoding and decoding utility methods that are not accessible from the Server.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates the use of the UrlEncode, [M:System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlDecode(System.String]), and ParseQueryString methods of the HttpUtility class.

Visual Basic

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

        Dim currurl As String = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl
        Dim querystring As String = Nothing

        ' Check to make sure some query string variables
        ' exist and if not add some and redirect.
        Dim iqs As Int32 = currurl.IndexOf("?".ToCharArray())
        If (iqs = -1) Then

            Dim redirecturl As String = currurl & "?var1=1&var2=2+2%2f3&var1=3"
            Response.Redirect(redirecturl, True)

            ' If query string variables exist, put them in
            ' a string.
        ElseIf (iqs >= 0) Then

            If (iqs < currurl.Length - 1) Then
                querystring = currurl.Substring(iqs + 1)
            End If

        End If

        ' Parse the query string variables into a NameValueCollection.
        Dim qscoll As NameValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(querystring)

        ' Iterate through the collection.
        Dim sb As New StringBuilder()
        For Each s As String In qscoll.AllKeys

            sb.Append(s & " - " & qscoll(s) & "<br />")

        Next s

        ' Write the results to the appropriate labels.
        ParseOutput.Text = sb.ToString()
        UrlRawOutput.Text = currurl
        UrlEncodedOutput.Text = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(currurl)
        UrlDecodedOutput.Text = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(currurl)

    End Sub
</script>

<html  >
<head runat="server">
    <title>HttpUtility Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
      The raw url is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlRawOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The url encoded is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlEncodedOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The url decoded is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlDecodedOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The query string NameValueCollection is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="ParseOutput"
                  runat="server" />    
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        String currurl = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl;
        String querystring = null;

        // Check to make sure some query string variables
        // exist and if not add some and redirect.
        int iqs = currurl.IndexOf('?');
        if (iqs == -1)
        {
            String redirecturl = currurl + "?var1=1&var2=2+2%2f3&var1=3";
            Response.Redirect(redirecturl, true);
        }
        // If query string variables exist, put them in
        // a string.
        else if (iqs >= 0)
        {
            querystring = (iqs < currurl.Length - 1) ? currurl.Substring(iqs + 1) : String.Empty;
        }

        // Parse the query string variables into a NameValueCollection.
        NameValueCollection qscoll = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(querystring);

        // Iterate through the collection.
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        foreach (String s in qscoll.AllKeys)
        {
            sb.Append(s + " - " + qscoll[s] + "<br />");
        }

        // Write the results to the appropriate labels.
        ParseOutput.Text = sb.ToString();
        UrlRawOutput.Text = currurl;
        UrlEncodedOutput.Text = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(currurl);
        UrlDecodedOutput.Text = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(currurl);
    }
</script>


<html  >
<head runat="server">
    <title>HttpUtility Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
      The raw url is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlRawOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The url encoded is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlEncodedOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The url decoded is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="UrlDecodedOutput"
                  runat="server" />
      <br /><br />
      The query string NameValueCollection is: <br />
      <asp:Label  id="ParseOutput"
                  runat="server" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

.NET Framework Security

AspNetHostingPermission
for operating in a hosted environment. Demand value: LinkDemand; Permission value: Minimal.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System..::.Object
System.Web..::.HttpUtility

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

Reference

Other Resources

How to: Protect Against Script Exploits in a Web Application by Applying HTML Encoding to Strings