String manipulation based on dictionary

String manipulation based on dictionary - c#

I have a Dictionary<string, string> used to match a string to a new one.
Dictionary<string, string> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "foo", "bar" }
};
The method I use to match the string:
public static string GetValueOrKeyAsDefault(this Dictionary<string, string> dictionary, string key)
{
string value;
return dictionary.TryGetValue(key, out value) ? value : key;
}
Used like so:
string s1 = dictionary.GetValueOrKeyAsDefault("foo"); /* s1 equals "bar" */
string s2 = dictionary.GetValueOrKeyAsDefault("test"); /* s2 equals "test" */
I now want to match a string partially and keep part of this string in the matched one.
/* {0} is arbitrary, could be anything else */
Dictionary<string, string> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "SPROC:{0}", "{0}" },
{ "onClick='{0}(this)'", "{0}" }
};
string s1 = dictionary.SomeMethod("SPROC:my_sproc"); /* s1 equals "my_sproc" */
string s2 = dictionary.SomeMethod("onClick='HandleOnClick(this)'"); /* s1 equals "HandleOnClick" */
I feel like regex could be a way but I have no idea how to implement it.

Note that using a Dictionary<,> here is "morally" wrong... I would use a List<Tuple<Regex, string>>. It is morally wrong for two reasons: the ordering (so the priority) of the various key-values isn't "fixed" and could be quite random AND you can't leverage on the strength of the Dictionary<,>: the O(1) exact match (TryGetValue).
Still:
public static string SomeMethod(Dictionary<string, string> dictionary, string str)
{
foreach (var kv in dictionary)
{
var rx = new Regex(kv.Key);
if (rx.IsMatch(str))
{
string replaced = rx.Replace(str, kv.Value);
return replaced;
}
}
return str;
}
Dictionary<string, string> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ #"SPROC:(.*)", "$1" },
{ #"onClick='(.*)\(this\)'", "$1" }
};
string replaced = SomeMethod(dictionary, "SPROC:my_sproc");
Note that you have to use the Regex "language" (see the (.*) and the $1)
Without the useless Dictionary<,>:
public static string SomeMethod(IEnumerable<Tuple<Regex, string>> tuples, string str)
{
foreach (var rr in tuples)
{
if (rr.Item1.IsMatch(str))
{
string replaced = rr.Item1.Replace(str, rr.Item2);
return replaced;
}
}
return str;
}
var dictionary = new[]
{
Tuple.Create(new Regex("SPROC:(.*)"), "$1"),
Tuple.Create(new Regex(#"onClick='(.*)\(this\)'"), "$1"),
};
string replaced = SomeMethod(dictionary, "SPROC:my_sproc");
As a sidenote, I would add a ^ at the beginning of each regex and a $ at the end of each regex, like "^SPROC:(.*)$", just to be sure that the regex won't match partial substrings.

Related

Convert query string from VBA to C# and send it with HttpClient [duplicate]

A common task when calling web resources from a code is building a query string to including all the necessary parameters. While by all means no rocket science, there are some nifty details you need to take care of like, appending an & if not the first parameter, encoding the parameters etc.
The code to do it is very simple, but a bit tedious:
StringBuilder SB = new StringBuilder();
if (NeedsToAddParameter A)
{
SB.Append("A="); SB.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfA"));
}
if (NeedsToAddParameter B)
{
if (SB.Length>0) SB.Append("&");
SB.Append("B="); SB.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfB")); }
}
This is such a common task one would expect a utility class to exist that makes it more elegant and readable. Scanning MSDN, I failed to find one—which brings me to the following question:
What is the most elegant clean way you know of doing the above?

You can create a new writeable instance of HttpValueCollection by calling System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty), and then use it as any NameValueCollection. Once you have added the values you want, you can call ToString on the collection to get a query string, as follows:
NameValueCollection queryString = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
queryString.Add("key1", "value1");
queryString.Add("key2", "value2");
return queryString.ToString(); // Returns "key1=value1&key2=value2", all URL-encoded
The HttpValueCollection is internal and so you cannot directly construct an instance. However, once you obtain an instance you can use it like any other NameValueCollection. Since the actual object you are working with is an HttpValueCollection, calling ToString method will call the overridden method on HttpValueCollection, which formats the collection as a URL-encoded query string.
After searching SO and the web for an answer to a similar issue, this is the most simple solution I could find.
.NET Core
If you're working in .NET Core, you can use the Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities.QueryHelpers class, which simplifies this greatly.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.webutilities.queryhelpers
Sample Code:
const string url = "https://customer-information.azure-api.net/customers/search/taxnbr";
var param = new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "CIKey", "123456789" } };
var newUrl = new Uri(QueryHelpers.AddQueryString(url, param));

If you look under the hood the QueryString property is a NameValueCollection. When I've done similar things I've usually been interested in serialising AND deserialising so my suggestion is to build a NameValueCollection up and then pass to:
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
private string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
var array = (
from key in nvc.AllKeys
from value in nvc.GetValues(key)
select string.Format(
"{0}={1}",
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
).ToArray();
return "?" + string.Join("&", array);
}
I imagine there's a super elegant way to do this in LINQ too...

With the inspiration from Roy Tinker's comment, I ended up using a simple extension method on the Uri class that keeps my code concise and clean:
using System.Web;
public static class HttpExtensions
{
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
var httpValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
httpValueCollection.Remove(name);
httpValueCollection.Add(name, value);
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
ub.Query = httpValueCollection.ToString();
return ub.Uri;
}
}
Usage:
Uri url = new Uri("http://localhost/rest/something/browse").
AddQuery("page", "0").
AddQuery("pageSize", "200");
Edit - Standards compliant variant
As several people pointed out, httpValueCollection.ToString() encodes Unicode characters in a non-standards-compliant way. This is a variant of the same extension method that handles such characters by invoking HttpUtility.UrlEncode method instead of the deprecated HttpUtility.UrlEncodeUnicode method.
using System.Web;
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
var httpValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
httpValueCollection.Remove(name);
httpValueCollection.Add(name, value);
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
// this code block is taken from httpValueCollection.ToString() method
// and modified so it encodes strings with HttpUtility.UrlEncode
if (httpValueCollection.Count == 0)
ub.Query = String.Empty;
else
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < httpValueCollection.Count; i++)
{
string text = httpValueCollection.GetKey(i);
{
text = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(text);
string val = (text != null) ? (text + "=") : string.Empty;
string[] vals = httpValueCollection.GetValues(i);
if (sb.Length > 0)
sb.Append('&');
if (vals == null || vals.Length == 0)
sb.Append(val);
else
{
if (vals.Length == 1)
{
sb.Append(val);
sb.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(vals[0]));
}
else
{
for (int j = 0; j < vals.Length; j++)
{
if (j > 0)
sb.Append('&');
sb.Append(val);
sb.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(vals[j]));
}
}
}
}
}
ub.Query = sb.ToString();
}
return ub.Uri;
}

Flurl [disclosure: I'm the author] supports building query strings via anonymous objects (among other ways):
var url = "http://www.some-api.com".SetQueryParams(new
{
api_key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SomeApiKey"],
max_results = 20,
q = "Don't worry, I'll get encoded!"
});
The optional Flurl.Http companion lib allows you to do HTTP calls right off the same fluent call chain, extending it into a full-blown REST client:
T result = await "https://api.mysite.com"
.AppendPathSegment("person")
.SetQueryParams(new { ap_key = "my-key" })
.WithOAuthBearerToken("MyToken")
.PostJsonAsync(new { first_name = firstName, last_name = lastName })
.ReceiveJson<T>();
The full package is available on NuGet:
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http
or just the stand-alone URL builder:
PM> Install-Package Flurl

Curious that no one has mentioned QueryBuilder from AspNet.Core.
It's helpful when you have a query with duplicate key like ?filter=a&filter=b
var qb = new QueryBuilder();
qb.Add("filter", new string[] {"A", "B"});
Then you'll just add qb to the URI, it is converted automatically to string.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.extensions.querybuilder?view=aspnetcore-5.0

I answered a similar question a while ago. Basically, the best way would be to use the class HttpValueCollection, which ASP.NET's Request.QueryString property actually is, unfortunately it is internal in the .NET framework.
You could use Reflector to grab it (and place it into your Utils class). This way you could manipulate the query string like a NameValueCollection, but with all the url encoding/decoding issues taken care for you.
HttpValueCollection extends NameValueCollection, and has a constructor that takes an encoded query string (ampersands and question marks included), and it overrides a ToString() method to later rebuild the query string from the underlying collection.
Example:
var coll = new HttpValueCollection();
coll["userId"] = "50";
coll["paramA"] = "A";
coll["paramB"] = "B";
string query = coll.ToString(true); // true means use urlencode
Console.WriteLine(query); // prints: userId=50&paramA=A&paramB=B

Here's a fluent/lambda-ish way as an extension method (combining concepts in previous posts) that supports multiple values for the same key. My personal preference is extensions over wrappers for discover-ability by other team members for stuff like this. Note that there's controversy around encoding methods, plenty of posts about it on Stack Overflow (one such post) and MSDN bloggers (like this one).
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.AllKeys
.SelectMany(key => source.GetValues(key)
.Select(value => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))))
.ToArray());
}
edit: with null support, though you'll probably need to adapt it for your particular situation
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source, bool removeEmptyEntries)
{
return source != null ? String.Join("&", source.AllKeys
.Where(key => !removeEmptyEntries || source.GetValues(key)
.Where(value => !String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
.Any())
.SelectMany(key => source.GetValues(key)
.Where(value => !removeEmptyEntries || !String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
.Select(value => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), value != null ? HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value) : string.Empty)))
.ToArray())
: string.Empty;
}

Here's my late entry. I didn't like any of the others for various reasons, so I wrote my own.
This version features:
Use of StringBuilder only. No ToArray() calls or other extension methods. It doesn't look as pretty as some of the other responses, but I consider this a core function so efficiency is more important than having "fluent", "one-liner" code which hide inefficiencies.
Handles multiple values per key. (Didn't need it myself but just to silence Mauricio ;)
public string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("?");
bool first = true;
foreach (string key in nvc.AllKeys)
{
foreach (string value in nvc.GetValues(key))
{
if (!first)
{
sb.Append("&");
}
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", Uri.EscapeDataString(key), Uri.EscapeDataString(value));
first = false;
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Example Usage
var queryParams = new NameValueCollection()
{
{ "x", "1" },
{ "y", "2" },
{ "foo", "bar" },
{ "foo", "baz" },
{ "special chars", "? = &" },
};
string url = "http://example.com/stuff" + ToQueryString(queryParams);
Console.WriteLine(url);
Output
http://example.com/stuff?x=1&y=2&foo=bar&foo=baz&special%20chars=%3F%20%3D%20%26

I needed to solve the same problem for a portable class library (PCL) that I'm working on. In this case, I don't have access to System.Web so I can't use ParseQueryString.
Instead I used System.Net.Http.FormUrlEncodedContent like so:
var url = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
url.Query = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new Dictionary<string,string>()
{
{"param1", "val1"},
{"param2", "val2"},
{"param3", "val3"},
}).ReadAsStringAsync().Result;

How about creating extension methods that allow you to add the parameters in a fluent style like this?
string a = "http://www.somedomain.com/somepage.html"
.AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
.AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
.AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ");
string b = new StringBuilder("http://www.somedomain.com/anotherpage.html")
.AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
.AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
.AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ")
.ToString();
Here's the overload that uses a string:
public static string AddQueryParam(
this string source, string key, string value)
{
string delim;
if ((source == null) || !source.Contains("?"))
{
delim = "?";
}
else if (source.EndsWith("?") || source.EndsWith("&"))
{
delim = string.Empty;
}
else
{
delim = "&";
}
return source + delim + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key)
+ "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value);
}
And here's the overload that uses a StringBuilder:
public static StringBuilder AddQueryParam(
this StringBuilder source, string key, string value)
{
bool hasQuery = false;
for (int i = 0; i < source.Length; i++)
{
if (source[i] == '?')
{
hasQuery = true;
break;
}
}
string delim;
if (!hasQuery)
{
delim = "?";
}
else if ((source[source.Length - 1] == '?')
|| (source[source.Length - 1] == '&'))
{
delim = string.Empty;
}
else
{
delim = "&";
}
return source.Append(delim).Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key))
.Append("=").Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
}

public static string ToQueryString(this Dictionary<string, string> source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.Select(kvp => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))).ToArray());
}
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.Cast<string>().Select(key => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(source[key]))).ToArray());
}

Add this class to your project
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
public class QueryStringBuilder
{
private readonly List<KeyValuePair<string, object>> _list;
public QueryStringBuilder()
{
_list = new List<KeyValuePair<string, object>>();
}
public void Add(string name, object value)
{
_list.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, object>(name, value));
}
public override string ToString()
{
return String.Join("&", _list.Select(kvp => String.Concat(Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Key), "=", Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Value.ToString()))));
}
}
And use it like this:
var actual = new QueryStringBuilder {
{"foo", 123},
{"bar", "val31"},
{"bar", "val32"}
};
actual.Add("a+b", "c+d");
actual.ToString(); // "foo=123&bar=val31&bar=val32&a%2bb=c%2bd"

Untested, but I think something along these lines would work quite nicely
public class QueryString
{
private Dictionary<string,string> _Params = new Dictionary<string,string>();
public overide ToString()
{
List<string> returnParams = new List<string>();
foreach (KeyValuePair param in _Params)
{
returnParams.Add(String.Format("{0}={1}", param.Key, param.Value));
}
// return String.Format("?{0}", String.Join("&", returnParams.ToArray()));
// credit annakata
return "?" + String.Join("&", returnParams.ToArray());
}
public void Add(string key, string value)
{
_Params.Add(key, HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
}
}
QueryString query = new QueryString();
query.Add("param1", "value1");
query.Add("param2", "value2");
return query.ToString();

My offering:
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
// this actually returns HttpValueCollection : NameValueCollection
// which uses unicode compliant encoding on ToString()
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
query.Add(name, value);
var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder(uri)
{
Query = query.ToString()
};
return uriBuilder.Uri;
}
Usage:
var uri = new Uri("http://stackoverflow.com").AddQuery("such", "method")
.AddQuery("wow", "soFluent");
// http://stackoverflow.com?such=method&wow=soFluent

In dotnet core QueryHelpers.AddQueryString() will accept an IDictionary<string,string> of key-value pairs. To save a few memory allocs and CPU cycles you can use SortedList<,> instead of Dictionary<,>, with an appropriate capacity and items added in sort order...
var queryParams = new SortedList<string,string>(2);
queryParams.Add("abc", "val1");
queryParams.Add("def", "val2");
string requestUri = QueryHelpers.AddQueryString("https://localhost/api", queryParams);

Combined the top answers to create an anonymous object version:
var queryString = HttpUtility2.BuildQueryString(new
{
key2 = "value2",
key1 = "value1",
});
That generates this:
key2=value2&key1=value1
Here's the code:
public static class HttpUtility2
{
public static string BuildQueryString<T>(T obj)
{
var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
foreach (var property in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T)).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>())
{
var value = (property.GetValue(obj) ?? "").ToString();
queryString.Add(property.Name, value);
}
return queryString.ToString();
}
}

A quick extension method based version:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var parameters = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>
{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("A", "AValue"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("B", "BValue")
};
string output = "?" + string.Join("&", parameters.ConvertAll(param => param.ToQueryString()).ToArray());
}
}
public static class KeyValueExtensions
{
public static string ToQueryString(this KeyValuePair<string, string> obj)
{
return obj.Key + "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(obj.Value);
}
}
You could use a where clause to select which parameters get added to the string.

There's lots of good answers here but for those using modern C# this may be a nice utility class to keep around.
public class QueryParamBuilder
{
private readonly Dictionary<string, string> _fields = new();
public QueryParamBuilder Add(string key, string value)
{
_fields.Add(key, value);
return this;
}
public string Build()
{
return $"?{String.Join("&", _fields.Select(pair => $"{HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Key)}={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Value)}"))}";
}
public static QueryParamBuilder New => new();
}
I use an internal Dictionary here because dictionaries are enumerable key value pairs internally which makes iterating over them much easier than a NameValueCollection.
Then the query string itself is a simple interpolated string with a join.
Additionally I provide a static interface into the constructor to make the construction of a new builder very easy and only allow one exposed method Add to add new query parameter values. Finally you terminate the chain with Build() to actually get the final string.
Here's an example of its usage
var queryString = QueryParamBuilder.New
.Add("id", "0123")
.Add("value2", 1234.ToString())
.Add("valueWithSpace","value with spa12!###!ce")
.Build();
The result is as expected
?id=0123&value2=1234&valueWithSpace=value+with+spa12!%40%23%40!ce
Hopefully some of you will find this nice and elegant.

Assuming that you want to reduce dependencies to other assemblies and to keep things simple, you can do:
var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.Append("a=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfA") + "&");
sb.Append("b=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfB") + "&");
sb.Append("c=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfC") + "&");
sb.Append("d=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfD") + "&");
sb.Remove(sb.Length-1, 1); // Remove the final '&'
string result = sb.ToString();
This works well with loops too. The final ampersand removal needs to go outside of the loop.
Note that the concatenation operator is used to improve readability. The cost of using it compared to the cost of using a StringBuilder is minimal (I think Jeff Atwood posted something on this topic).

I have an extension method for Uri that:
Accepts anonymous objects: uri.WithQuery(new { name = "value" })
Accepts collections of string/string pairs (e.g. Dictionary`2).
Accepts collections of string/object pairs (e.g. RouteValueDictionary).
Accepts NameValueCollections.
Sorts the query values by key so the same values produce equal URIs.
Supports multiple values per key, preserving their original order.
The documented version can be found here.
The extension:
public static Uri WithQuery(this Uri uri, object values)
{
if (uri == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(uri));
if (values != null)
{
var query = string.Join(
"&", from p in ParseQueryValues(values)
where !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(p.Key)
let k = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(p.Key.Trim())
let v = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(p.Value)
orderby k
select string.IsNullOrEmpty(v) ? k : $"{k}={v}");
if (query.Length != 0 || uri.Query.Length != 0)
uri = new UriBuilder(uri) { Query = query }.Uri;
}
return uri;
}
The query parser:
private static IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, string>> ParseQueryValues(object values)
{
// Check if a name/value collection.
var nvc = values as NameValueCollection;
if (nvc != null)
return from key in nvc.AllKeys
from val in nvc.GetValues(key)
select new KeyValuePair<string, string>(key, val);
// Check if a string/string dictionary.
var ssd = values as IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, string>>;
if (ssd != null)
return ssd;
// Check if a string/object dictionary.
var sod = values as IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>>;
if (sod == null)
{
// Check if a non-generic dictionary.
var ngd = values as IDictionary;
if (ngd != null)
sod = ngd.Cast<dynamic>().ToDictionary<dynamic, string, object>(
p => p.Key.ToString(), p => p.Value as object);
// Convert object properties to dictionary.
if (sod == null)
sod = new RouteValueDictionary(values);
}
// Normalize and return the values.
return from pair in sod
from val in pair.Value as IEnumerable<string>
?? new[] { pair.Value?.ToString() }
select new KeyValuePair<string, string>(pair.Key, val);
}
Here are the tests:
var uri = new Uri("https://stackoverflow.com/yo?oldKey=oldValue");
// Test with a string/string dictionary.
var q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<string, string>
{
["k1"] = string.Empty,
["k2"] = null,
["k3"] = "v3"
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1&k2&k3=v3"));
// Test with a string/object dictionary.
q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<string, object>
{
["k1"] = "v1",
["k2"] = new[] { "v2a", "v2b" },
["k3"] = null
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b&k3"));
// Test with a name/value collection.
var nvc = new NameValueCollection()
{
["k1"] = string.Empty,
["k2"] = "v2a"
};
nvc.Add("k2", "v2b");
q = uri.WithQuery(nvc);
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b"));
// Test with any dictionary.
q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<int, HashSet<string>>
{
[1] = new HashSet<string> { "v1" },
[2] = new HashSet<string> { "v2a", "v2b" },
[3] = null
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?1=v1&2=v2a&2=v2b&3"));
// Test with an anonymous object.
q = uri.WithQuery(new
{
k1 = "v1",
k2 = new[] { "v2a", "v2b" },
k3 = new List<string> { "v3" },
k4 = true,
k5 = null as Queue<string>
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b&k3=v3&k4=True&k5"));
// Keep existing query using a name/value collection.
nvc = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
nvc.Add("newKey", "newValue");
q = uri.WithQuery(nvc);
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?newKey=newValue&oldKey=oldValue"));
// Merge two query objects using the RouteValueDictionary.
var an1 = new { k1 = "v1" };
var an2 = new { k2 = "v2" };
q = uri.WithQuery(
new RouteValueDictionary(an1).Concat(
new RouteValueDictionary(an2)));
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2"));

Chain-able wrapper class for HttpValueCollection:
namespace System.Web.Mvc {
public class QueryStringBuilder {
private NameValueCollection collection;
public QueryStringBuilder() {
collection = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
}
public QueryStringBuilder Add(string key, string value) {
collection.Add(key, value);
return this;
}
public QueryStringBuilder Remove(string key) {
collection.Remove(key);
return this;
}
public string this[string key] {
get { return collection[key]; }
set { collection[key] = value; }
}
public string ToString() {
return collection.ToString();
}
}
}
Example usage:
QueryStringBuilder parameters = new QueryStringBuilder()
.Add("view", ViewBag.PageView)
.Add("page", ViewBag.PageNumber)
.Add("size", ViewBag.PageSize);
string queryString = parameters.ToString();

Same as accepted solution, but transfred to "dot" LINQ syntax...
private string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
if (nvc == null) return String.Empty;
var queryParams =
string.Join("&", nvc.AllKeys.Select(key =>
string.Join("&", nvc.GetValues(key).Select(v => string.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(v))))));
return "?" + queryParams;
}

While not elegant, I opted for a simpler version that doesn't use NameValueCollecitons - just a builder pattern wrapped around StringBuilder.
public class UrlBuilder
{
#region Variables / Properties
private readonly StringBuilder _builder;
#endregion Variables / Properties
#region Constructor
public UrlBuilder(string urlBase)
{
_builder = new StringBuilder(urlBase);
}
#endregion Constructor
#region Methods
public UrlBuilder AppendParameter(string paramName, string value)
{
if (_builder.ToString().Contains("?"))
_builder.Append("&");
else
_builder.Append("?");
_builder.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(paramName));
_builder.Append("=");
_builder.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
return this;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return _builder.ToString();
}
#endregion Methods
}
Per existing answers, I made sure to use HttpUtility.UrlEncode calls. It's used like so:
string url = new UrlBuilder("http://www.somedomain.com/")
.AppendParameter("a", "true")
.AppendParameter("b", "muffin")
.AppendParameter("c", "muffin button")
.ToString();
// Result: http://www.somedomain.com?a=true&b=muffin&c=muffin%20button

The query string can be added to a URL by:
create a name value collection object
add the query string items and their values to this object
encode this name value collection object to the url the code is provided in the below link
https://blog.codingnovice.com/blog
public ActionResult Create()
{
//declaring name value collection object
NameValueCollection collection = new NameValueCollection();
//adding new value to the name value collection object
collection.Add("Id1", "wwe323");
collection.Add("Id2", "454w");
collection.Add("Id3", "tyt5656");
collection.Add("Id4", "343wdsd");
//generating query string
string url = GenerateQueryString(collection);
return View();
}
private string GenerateQueryString(NameValueCollection collection)
{
var querystring = (
from key in collection.AllKeys
from value in collection.GetValues(key)
select string.Format("{0}={1}",
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
).ToArray();
return "?" + string.Join("&", querystring);
}

I added the following method to my PageBase class.
protected void Redirect(string url)
{
Response.Redirect(url);
}
protected void Redirect(string url, NameValueCollection querystrings)
{
StringBuilder redirectUrl = new StringBuilder(url);
if (querystrings != null)
{
for (int index = 0; index < querystrings.Count; index++)
{
if (index == 0)
{
redirectUrl.Append("?");
}
redirectUrl.Append(querystrings.Keys[index]);
redirectUrl.Append("=");
redirectUrl.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(querystrings[index]));
if (index < querystrings.Count - 1)
{
redirectUrl.Append("&");
}
}
}
this.Redirect(redirectUrl.ToString());
}
To call:
NameValueCollection querystrings = new NameValueCollection();
querystrings.Add("language", "en");
querystrings.Add("id", "134");
this.Redirect("http://www.mypage.com", querystrings);

I wrote some extension methods that I have found very useful when working with QueryStrings. Often I want to start with the current QueryString and modify before using it. Something like,
var res = Request.QueryString.Duplicate()
.ChangeField("field1", "somevalue")
.ChangeField("field2", "only if following is true", true)
.ChangeField("id", id, id>0)
.WriteLocalPathWithQuery(Request.Url)); //Uses context to write the path
For more and the source: http://www.charlesrcook.com/archive/2008/07/23/c-extension-methods-for-asp.net-query-string-operations.aspx
It's basic, but I like the style.

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents:
public static class HttpClientExt
{
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string query)
{
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
ub.Query = string.IsNullOrEmpty(uri.Query) ? query : string.Join("&", uri.Query.Substring(1), query);
return ub.Uri;
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IEnumerable<string> query)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("&", query));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string key, string value)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value)));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, params KeyValuePair<string,string>[] kvps)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IDictionary<string, string> kvps)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, NameValueCollection nvc)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(nvc.AllKeys.SelectMany(nvc.GetValues, (key, value) => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))));
}
}
The docs say that uri.Query will start with a ? if it's non-empty and you should trim it off if you're going to modify it.
Note that HttpUtility.UrlEncode is found in System.Web.
Usage:
var uri = new Uri("https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/suggest").AddQueryParam("url","http://stackoverflow.com")

// USAGE
[TestMethod]
public void TestUrlBuilder()
{
Console.WriteLine(
new UrlBuilder("http://www.google.com?A=B")
.AddPath("SomePathName")
.AddPath("AnotherPathName")
.SetQuery("SomeQueryKey", "SomeQueryValue")
.AlterQuery("A", x => x + "C"));
}
Output:
http://www.google.com/SomePathName/AnotherPathName?A=BC&SomeQueryKey=SomeQueryValue
The code; you can all thank me somewhere, somehow :D
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
// By Demetris Leptos
namespace TheOperator.Foundation.Web
{
public class UrlBuilder
{
public string Scheme { get; set; }
public string Host { get; set; }
public int? Port { get; set; }
public List<string> Paths { get; set; }
public SortedDictionary<string, string> QueryPairs { get; set; }
public UrlBuilder(string url)
{
this.Paths = new List<string>();
this.QueryPairs = new SortedDictionary<string, string>();
string path = null;
string query = null;
Uri relativeUri = null;
if (!Uri.TryCreate(url, UriKind.Relative, out relativeUri))
{
var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder(url);
this.Scheme = uriBuilder.Scheme;
this.Host = uriBuilder.Host;
this.Port = uriBuilder.Port;
path = uriBuilder.Path;
query = uriBuilder.Query;
}
else
{
var queryIndex = url.IndexOf('?');
if (queryIndex >= 0)
{
path = url.Substring(0, queryIndex);
query = url.Substring(queryIndex + 1);
}
else
{
path = url;
}
}
this.Paths.AddRange(path.Split(new char[] { '/' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries));
if (query != null)
{
var queryKeyValuePairs = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(query);
foreach (var queryKey in queryKeyValuePairs.AllKeys)
{
this.QueryPairs[queryKey] = queryKeyValuePairs[queryKey];
}
}
}
public UrlBuilder AddPath(string value)
{
this.Paths.Add(value);
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder SetQuery(string key, string value)
{
this.QueryPairs[key] = value;
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder RemoveQuery(string key)
{
this.QueryPairs.Remove(key);
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder AlterQuery(string key, Func<string, string> alterMethod, bool removeOnNull = false)
{
string value;
this.QueryPairs.TryGetValue(key, out value);
value = alterMethod(value);
if (removeOnNull && value == null)
{
return this.RemoveQuery(key);
}
else
{
return this.SetQuery(key, value);
}
}
public override string ToString()
{
var path = !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(this.Host)
? string.Join("/", this.Host, string.Join("/", this.Paths))
: string.Join("/", this.Paths);
var query = string.Join("&", this.QueryPairs.Select(x => string.Concat(x.Key, "=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(x.Value))));
return string.Concat(
!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(this.Scheme) ? string.Concat(this.Scheme, "://") : null,
path,
!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(query) ? string.Concat("?", query) : null);
}
}
}

I went with the solution proposed by DSO (answered on Aug 2 '11 at 7:29), his solution does not require using HttpUtility. However, as per an article posted in Dotnetpearls, using a Dictionary is faster (in performance) than using NameValueCollection. Here is DSO's solution modified to use Dictionary in place of NameValueCollection.
public static Dictionary<string, string> QueryParametersDictionary()
{
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dictionary.Add("name", "John Doe");
dictionary.Add("address.city", "Seattle");
dictionary.Add("address.state_code", "WA");
dictionary.Add("api_key", "5352345263456345635");
return dictionary;
}
public static string ToQueryString(Dictionary<string, string> nvc)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
bool first = true;
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> pair in nvc)
{
if (!first)
{
sb.Append("&");
}
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", Uri.EscapeDataString(pair.Key), Uri.EscapeDataString(pair.Value));
first = false;
}
return sb.ToString();
}

I wrote a helper for my razor project using some of the hints from other answers.
The ParseQueryString business is necessary because we are not allowed to tamper with the QueryString object of the current request.
#helper GetQueryStringWithValue(string key, string value) {
var queryString = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString.ToString());
queryString[key] = value;
#Html.Raw(queryString.ToString())
}
I use it like this:
location.search = '?#Helpers.GetQueryStringWithValue("var-name", "var-value")';
If you want it to take more than one value, just change the parameters to a Dictionary and add the pairs to the query string.

How to bulid a url string with multiple parameters [duplicate]

A common task when calling web resources from a code is building a query string to including all the necessary parameters. While by all means no rocket science, there are some nifty details you need to take care of like, appending an & if not the first parameter, encoding the parameters etc.
The code to do it is very simple, but a bit tedious:
StringBuilder SB = new StringBuilder();
if (NeedsToAddParameter A)
{
SB.Append("A="); SB.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfA"));
}
if (NeedsToAddParameter B)
{
if (SB.Length>0) SB.Append("&");
SB.Append("B="); SB.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfB")); }
}
This is such a common task one would expect a utility class to exist that makes it more elegant and readable. Scanning MSDN, I failed to find one—which brings me to the following question:
What is the most elegant clean way you know of doing the above?

You can create a new writeable instance of HttpValueCollection by calling System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty), and then use it as any NameValueCollection. Once you have added the values you want, you can call ToString on the collection to get a query string, as follows:
NameValueCollection queryString = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
queryString.Add("key1", "value1");
queryString.Add("key2", "value2");
return queryString.ToString(); // Returns "key1=value1&key2=value2", all URL-encoded
The HttpValueCollection is internal and so you cannot directly construct an instance. However, once you obtain an instance you can use it like any other NameValueCollection. Since the actual object you are working with is an HttpValueCollection, calling ToString method will call the overridden method on HttpValueCollection, which formats the collection as a URL-encoded query string.
After searching SO and the web for an answer to a similar issue, this is the most simple solution I could find.
.NET Core
If you're working in .NET Core, you can use the Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities.QueryHelpers class, which simplifies this greatly.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.webutilities.queryhelpers
Sample Code:
const string url = "https://customer-information.azure-api.net/customers/search/taxnbr";
var param = new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "CIKey", "123456789" } };
var newUrl = new Uri(QueryHelpers.AddQueryString(url, param));

If you look under the hood the QueryString property is a NameValueCollection. When I've done similar things I've usually been interested in serialising AND deserialising so my suggestion is to build a NameValueCollection up and then pass to:
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
private string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
var array = (
from key in nvc.AllKeys
from value in nvc.GetValues(key)
select string.Format(
"{0}={1}",
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
).ToArray();
return "?" + string.Join("&", array);
}
I imagine there's a super elegant way to do this in LINQ too...

With the inspiration from Roy Tinker's comment, I ended up using a simple extension method on the Uri class that keeps my code concise and clean:
using System.Web;
public static class HttpExtensions
{
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
var httpValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
httpValueCollection.Remove(name);
httpValueCollection.Add(name, value);
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
ub.Query = httpValueCollection.ToString();
return ub.Uri;
}
}
Usage:
Uri url = new Uri("http://localhost/rest/something/browse").
AddQuery("page", "0").
AddQuery("pageSize", "200");
Edit - Standards compliant variant
As several people pointed out, httpValueCollection.ToString() encodes Unicode characters in a non-standards-compliant way. This is a variant of the same extension method that handles such characters by invoking HttpUtility.UrlEncode method instead of the deprecated HttpUtility.UrlEncodeUnicode method.
using System.Web;
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
var httpValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
httpValueCollection.Remove(name);
httpValueCollection.Add(name, value);
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
// this code block is taken from httpValueCollection.ToString() method
// and modified so it encodes strings with HttpUtility.UrlEncode
if (httpValueCollection.Count == 0)
ub.Query = String.Empty;
else
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < httpValueCollection.Count; i++)
{
string text = httpValueCollection.GetKey(i);
{
text = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(text);
string val = (text != null) ? (text + "=") : string.Empty;
string[] vals = httpValueCollection.GetValues(i);
if (sb.Length > 0)
sb.Append('&');
if (vals == null || vals.Length == 0)
sb.Append(val);
else
{
if (vals.Length == 1)
{
sb.Append(val);
sb.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(vals[0]));
}
else
{
for (int j = 0; j < vals.Length; j++)
{
if (j > 0)
sb.Append('&');
sb.Append(val);
sb.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(vals[j]));
}
}
}
}
}
ub.Query = sb.ToString();
}
return ub.Uri;
}

Flurl [disclosure: I'm the author] supports building query strings via anonymous objects (among other ways):
var url = "http://www.some-api.com".SetQueryParams(new
{
api_key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SomeApiKey"],
max_results = 20,
q = "Don't worry, I'll get encoded!"
});
The optional Flurl.Http companion lib allows you to do HTTP calls right off the same fluent call chain, extending it into a full-blown REST client:
T result = await "https://api.mysite.com"
.AppendPathSegment("person")
.SetQueryParams(new { ap_key = "my-key" })
.WithOAuthBearerToken("MyToken")
.PostJsonAsync(new { first_name = firstName, last_name = lastName })
.ReceiveJson<T>();
The full package is available on NuGet:
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http
or just the stand-alone URL builder:
PM> Install-Package Flurl

Curious that no one has mentioned QueryBuilder from AspNet.Core.
It's helpful when you have a query with duplicate key like ?filter=a&filter=b
var qb = new QueryBuilder();
qb.Add("filter", new string[] {"A", "B"});
Then you'll just add qb to the URI, it is converted automatically to string.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.extensions.querybuilder?view=aspnetcore-5.0

I answered a similar question a while ago. Basically, the best way would be to use the class HttpValueCollection, which ASP.NET's Request.QueryString property actually is, unfortunately it is internal in the .NET framework.
You could use Reflector to grab it (and place it into your Utils class). This way you could manipulate the query string like a NameValueCollection, but with all the url encoding/decoding issues taken care for you.
HttpValueCollection extends NameValueCollection, and has a constructor that takes an encoded query string (ampersands and question marks included), and it overrides a ToString() method to later rebuild the query string from the underlying collection.
Example:
var coll = new HttpValueCollection();
coll["userId"] = "50";
coll["paramA"] = "A";
coll["paramB"] = "B";
string query = coll.ToString(true); // true means use urlencode
Console.WriteLine(query); // prints: userId=50&paramA=A&paramB=B

Here's a fluent/lambda-ish way as an extension method (combining concepts in previous posts) that supports multiple values for the same key. My personal preference is extensions over wrappers for discover-ability by other team members for stuff like this. Note that there's controversy around encoding methods, plenty of posts about it on Stack Overflow (one such post) and MSDN bloggers (like this one).
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.AllKeys
.SelectMany(key => source.GetValues(key)
.Select(value => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))))
.ToArray());
}
edit: with null support, though you'll probably need to adapt it for your particular situation
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source, bool removeEmptyEntries)
{
return source != null ? String.Join("&", source.AllKeys
.Where(key => !removeEmptyEntries || source.GetValues(key)
.Where(value => !String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
.Any())
.SelectMany(key => source.GetValues(key)
.Where(value => !removeEmptyEntries || !String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
.Select(value => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), value != null ? HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value) : string.Empty)))
.ToArray())
: string.Empty;
}

Here's my late entry. I didn't like any of the others for various reasons, so I wrote my own.
This version features:
Use of StringBuilder only. No ToArray() calls or other extension methods. It doesn't look as pretty as some of the other responses, but I consider this a core function so efficiency is more important than having "fluent", "one-liner" code which hide inefficiencies.
Handles multiple values per key. (Didn't need it myself but just to silence Mauricio ;)
public string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("?");
bool first = true;
foreach (string key in nvc.AllKeys)
{
foreach (string value in nvc.GetValues(key))
{
if (!first)
{
sb.Append("&");
}
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", Uri.EscapeDataString(key), Uri.EscapeDataString(value));
first = false;
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Example Usage
var queryParams = new NameValueCollection()
{
{ "x", "1" },
{ "y", "2" },
{ "foo", "bar" },
{ "foo", "baz" },
{ "special chars", "? = &" },
};
string url = "http://example.com/stuff" + ToQueryString(queryParams);
Console.WriteLine(url);
Output
http://example.com/stuff?x=1&y=2&foo=bar&foo=baz&special%20chars=%3F%20%3D%20%26

I needed to solve the same problem for a portable class library (PCL) that I'm working on. In this case, I don't have access to System.Web so I can't use ParseQueryString.
Instead I used System.Net.Http.FormUrlEncodedContent like so:
var url = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
url.Query = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new Dictionary<string,string>()
{
{"param1", "val1"},
{"param2", "val2"},
{"param3", "val3"},
}).ReadAsStringAsync().Result;

How about creating extension methods that allow you to add the parameters in a fluent style like this?
string a = "http://www.somedomain.com/somepage.html"
.AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
.AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
.AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ");
string b = new StringBuilder("http://www.somedomain.com/anotherpage.html")
.AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
.AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
.AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ")
.ToString();
Here's the overload that uses a string:
public static string AddQueryParam(
this string source, string key, string value)
{
string delim;
if ((source == null) || !source.Contains("?"))
{
delim = "?";
}
else if (source.EndsWith("?") || source.EndsWith("&"))
{
delim = string.Empty;
}
else
{
delim = "&";
}
return source + delim + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key)
+ "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value);
}
And here's the overload that uses a StringBuilder:
public static StringBuilder AddQueryParam(
this StringBuilder source, string key, string value)
{
bool hasQuery = false;
for (int i = 0; i < source.Length; i++)
{
if (source[i] == '?')
{
hasQuery = true;
break;
}
}
string delim;
if (!hasQuery)
{
delim = "?";
}
else if ((source[source.Length - 1] == '?')
|| (source[source.Length - 1] == '&'))
{
delim = string.Empty;
}
else
{
delim = "&";
}
return source.Append(delim).Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key))
.Append("=").Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
}

public static string ToQueryString(this Dictionary<string, string> source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.Select(kvp => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))).ToArray());
}
public static string ToQueryString(this NameValueCollection source)
{
return String.Join("&", source.Cast<string>().Select(key => String.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(source[key]))).ToArray());
}

Add this class to your project
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
public class QueryStringBuilder
{
private readonly List<KeyValuePair<string, object>> _list;
public QueryStringBuilder()
{
_list = new List<KeyValuePair<string, object>>();
}
public void Add(string name, object value)
{
_list.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, object>(name, value));
}
public override string ToString()
{
return String.Join("&", _list.Select(kvp => String.Concat(Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Key), "=", Uri.EscapeDataString(kvp.Value.ToString()))));
}
}
And use it like this:
var actual = new QueryStringBuilder {
{"foo", 123},
{"bar", "val31"},
{"bar", "val32"}
};
actual.Add("a+b", "c+d");
actual.ToString(); // "foo=123&bar=val31&bar=val32&a%2bb=c%2bd"

Untested, but I think something along these lines would work quite nicely
public class QueryString
{
private Dictionary<string,string> _Params = new Dictionary<string,string>();
public overide ToString()
{
List<string> returnParams = new List<string>();
foreach (KeyValuePair param in _Params)
{
returnParams.Add(String.Format("{0}={1}", param.Key, param.Value));
}
// return String.Format("?{0}", String.Join("&", returnParams.ToArray()));
// credit annakata
return "?" + String.Join("&", returnParams.ToArray());
}
public void Add(string key, string value)
{
_Params.Add(key, HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
}
}
QueryString query = new QueryString();
query.Add("param1", "value1");
query.Add("param2", "value2");
return query.ToString();

My offering:
public static Uri AddQuery(this Uri uri, string name, string value)
{
// this actually returns HttpValueCollection : NameValueCollection
// which uses unicode compliant encoding on ToString()
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
query.Add(name, value);
var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder(uri)
{
Query = query.ToString()
};
return uriBuilder.Uri;
}
Usage:
var uri = new Uri("http://stackoverflow.com").AddQuery("such", "method")
.AddQuery("wow", "soFluent");
// http://stackoverflow.com?such=method&wow=soFluent

In dotnet core QueryHelpers.AddQueryString() will accept an IDictionary<string,string> of key-value pairs. To save a few memory allocs and CPU cycles you can use SortedList<,> instead of Dictionary<,>, with an appropriate capacity and items added in sort order...
var queryParams = new SortedList<string,string>(2);
queryParams.Add("abc", "val1");
queryParams.Add("def", "val2");
string requestUri = QueryHelpers.AddQueryString("https://localhost/api", queryParams);

Combined the top answers to create an anonymous object version:
var queryString = HttpUtility2.BuildQueryString(new
{
key2 = "value2",
key1 = "value1",
});
That generates this:
key2=value2&key1=value1
Here's the code:
public static class HttpUtility2
{
public static string BuildQueryString<T>(T obj)
{
var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
foreach (var property in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T)).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>())
{
var value = (property.GetValue(obj) ?? "").ToString();
queryString.Add(property.Name, value);
}
return queryString.ToString();
}
}

A quick extension method based version:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var parameters = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>
{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("A", "AValue"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("B", "BValue")
};
string output = "?" + string.Join("&", parameters.ConvertAll(param => param.ToQueryString()).ToArray());
}
}
public static class KeyValueExtensions
{
public static string ToQueryString(this KeyValuePair<string, string> obj)
{
return obj.Key + "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(obj.Value);
}
}
You could use a where clause to select which parameters get added to the string.

There's lots of good answers here but for those using modern C# this may be a nice utility class to keep around.
public class QueryParamBuilder
{
private readonly Dictionary<string, string> _fields = new();
public QueryParamBuilder Add(string key, string value)
{
_fields.Add(key, value);
return this;
}
public string Build()
{
return $"?{String.Join("&", _fields.Select(pair => $"{HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Key)}={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Value)}"))}";
}
public static QueryParamBuilder New => new();
}
I use an internal Dictionary here because dictionaries are enumerable key value pairs internally which makes iterating over them much easier than a NameValueCollection.
Then the query string itself is a simple interpolated string with a join.
Additionally I provide a static interface into the constructor to make the construction of a new builder very easy and only allow one exposed method Add to add new query parameter values. Finally you terminate the chain with Build() to actually get the final string.
Here's an example of its usage
var queryString = QueryParamBuilder.New
.Add("id", "0123")
.Add("value2", 1234.ToString())
.Add("valueWithSpace","value with spa12!###!ce")
.Build();
The result is as expected
?id=0123&value2=1234&valueWithSpace=value+with+spa12!%40%23%40!ce
Hopefully some of you will find this nice and elegant.

Assuming that you want to reduce dependencies to other assemblies and to keep things simple, you can do:
var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.Append("a=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfA") + "&");
sb.Append("b=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfB") + "&");
sb.Append("c=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfC") + "&");
sb.Append("d=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfD") + "&");
sb.Remove(sb.Length-1, 1); // Remove the final '&'
string result = sb.ToString();
This works well with loops too. The final ampersand removal needs to go outside of the loop.
Note that the concatenation operator is used to improve readability. The cost of using it compared to the cost of using a StringBuilder is minimal (I think Jeff Atwood posted something on this topic).

I have an extension method for Uri that:
Accepts anonymous objects: uri.WithQuery(new { name = "value" })
Accepts collections of string/string pairs (e.g. Dictionary`2).
Accepts collections of string/object pairs (e.g. RouteValueDictionary).
Accepts NameValueCollections.
Sorts the query values by key so the same values produce equal URIs.
Supports multiple values per key, preserving their original order.
The documented version can be found here.
The extension:
public static Uri WithQuery(this Uri uri, object values)
{
if (uri == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(uri));
if (values != null)
{
var query = string.Join(
"&", from p in ParseQueryValues(values)
where !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(p.Key)
let k = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(p.Key.Trim())
let v = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(p.Value)
orderby k
select string.IsNullOrEmpty(v) ? k : $"{k}={v}");
if (query.Length != 0 || uri.Query.Length != 0)
uri = new UriBuilder(uri) { Query = query }.Uri;
}
return uri;
}
The query parser:
private static IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, string>> ParseQueryValues(object values)
{
// Check if a name/value collection.
var nvc = values as NameValueCollection;
if (nvc != null)
return from key in nvc.AllKeys
from val in nvc.GetValues(key)
select new KeyValuePair<string, string>(key, val);
// Check if a string/string dictionary.
var ssd = values as IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, string>>;
if (ssd != null)
return ssd;
// Check if a string/object dictionary.
var sod = values as IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>>;
if (sod == null)
{
// Check if a non-generic dictionary.
var ngd = values as IDictionary;
if (ngd != null)
sod = ngd.Cast<dynamic>().ToDictionary<dynamic, string, object>(
p => p.Key.ToString(), p => p.Value as object);
// Convert object properties to dictionary.
if (sod == null)
sod = new RouteValueDictionary(values);
}
// Normalize and return the values.
return from pair in sod
from val in pair.Value as IEnumerable<string>
?? new[] { pair.Value?.ToString() }
select new KeyValuePair<string, string>(pair.Key, val);
}
Here are the tests:
var uri = new Uri("https://stackoverflow.com/yo?oldKey=oldValue");
// Test with a string/string dictionary.
var q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<string, string>
{
["k1"] = string.Empty,
["k2"] = null,
["k3"] = "v3"
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1&k2&k3=v3"));
// Test with a string/object dictionary.
q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<string, object>
{
["k1"] = "v1",
["k2"] = new[] { "v2a", "v2b" },
["k3"] = null
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b&k3"));
// Test with a name/value collection.
var nvc = new NameValueCollection()
{
["k1"] = string.Empty,
["k2"] = "v2a"
};
nvc.Add("k2", "v2b");
q = uri.WithQuery(nvc);
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b"));
// Test with any dictionary.
q = uri.WithQuery(new Dictionary<int, HashSet<string>>
{
[1] = new HashSet<string> { "v1" },
[2] = new HashSet<string> { "v2a", "v2b" },
[3] = null
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?1=v1&2=v2a&2=v2b&3"));
// Test with an anonymous object.
q = uri.WithQuery(new
{
k1 = "v1",
k2 = new[] { "v2a", "v2b" },
k3 = new List<string> { "v3" },
k4 = true,
k5 = null as Queue<string>
});
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2a&k2=v2b&k3=v3&k4=True&k5"));
// Keep existing query using a name/value collection.
nvc = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uri.Query);
nvc.Add("newKey", "newValue");
q = uri.WithQuery(nvc);
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?newKey=newValue&oldKey=oldValue"));
// Merge two query objects using the RouteValueDictionary.
var an1 = new { k1 = "v1" };
var an2 = new { k2 = "v2" };
q = uri.WithQuery(
new RouteValueDictionary(an1).Concat(
new RouteValueDictionary(an2)));
Debug.Assert(q == new Uri(
"https://stackoverflow.com/yo?k1=v1&k2=v2"));

Chain-able wrapper class for HttpValueCollection:
namespace System.Web.Mvc {
public class QueryStringBuilder {
private NameValueCollection collection;
public QueryStringBuilder() {
collection = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
}
public QueryStringBuilder Add(string key, string value) {
collection.Add(key, value);
return this;
}
public QueryStringBuilder Remove(string key) {
collection.Remove(key);
return this;
}
public string this[string key] {
get { return collection[key]; }
set { collection[key] = value; }
}
public string ToString() {
return collection.ToString();
}
}
}
Example usage:
QueryStringBuilder parameters = new QueryStringBuilder()
.Add("view", ViewBag.PageView)
.Add("page", ViewBag.PageNumber)
.Add("size", ViewBag.PageSize);
string queryString = parameters.ToString();

Same as accepted solution, but transfred to "dot" LINQ syntax...
private string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
if (nvc == null) return String.Empty;
var queryParams =
string.Join("&", nvc.AllKeys.Select(key =>
string.Join("&", nvc.GetValues(key).Select(v => string.Format("{0}={1}", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(v))))));
return "?" + queryParams;
}

While not elegant, I opted for a simpler version that doesn't use NameValueCollecitons - just a builder pattern wrapped around StringBuilder.
public class UrlBuilder
{
#region Variables / Properties
private readonly StringBuilder _builder;
#endregion Variables / Properties
#region Constructor
public UrlBuilder(string urlBase)
{
_builder = new StringBuilder(urlBase);
}
#endregion Constructor
#region Methods
public UrlBuilder AppendParameter(string paramName, string value)
{
if (_builder.ToString().Contains("?"))
_builder.Append("&");
else
_builder.Append("?");
_builder.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(paramName));
_builder.Append("=");
_builder.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
return this;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return _builder.ToString();
}
#endregion Methods
}
Per existing answers, I made sure to use HttpUtility.UrlEncode calls. It's used like so:
string url = new UrlBuilder("http://www.somedomain.com/")
.AppendParameter("a", "true")
.AppendParameter("b", "muffin")
.AppendParameter("c", "muffin button")
.ToString();
// Result: http://www.somedomain.com?a=true&b=muffin&c=muffin%20button

The query string can be added to a URL by:
create a name value collection object
add the query string items and their values to this object
encode this name value collection object to the url the code is provided in the below link
https://blog.codingnovice.com/blog
public ActionResult Create()
{
//declaring name value collection object
NameValueCollection collection = new NameValueCollection();
//adding new value to the name value collection object
collection.Add("Id1", "wwe323");
collection.Add("Id2", "454w");
collection.Add("Id3", "tyt5656");
collection.Add("Id4", "343wdsd");
//generating query string
string url = GenerateQueryString(collection);
return View();
}
private string GenerateQueryString(NameValueCollection collection)
{
var querystring = (
from key in collection.AllKeys
from value in collection.GetValues(key)
select string.Format("{0}={1}",
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
).ToArray();
return "?" + string.Join("&", querystring);
}

I added the following method to my PageBase class.
protected void Redirect(string url)
{
Response.Redirect(url);
}
protected void Redirect(string url, NameValueCollection querystrings)
{
StringBuilder redirectUrl = new StringBuilder(url);
if (querystrings != null)
{
for (int index = 0; index < querystrings.Count; index++)
{
if (index == 0)
{
redirectUrl.Append("?");
}
redirectUrl.Append(querystrings.Keys[index]);
redirectUrl.Append("=");
redirectUrl.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(querystrings[index]));
if (index < querystrings.Count - 1)
{
redirectUrl.Append("&");
}
}
}
this.Redirect(redirectUrl.ToString());
}
To call:
NameValueCollection querystrings = new NameValueCollection();
querystrings.Add("language", "en");
querystrings.Add("id", "134");
this.Redirect("http://www.mypage.com", querystrings);

I wrote some extension methods that I have found very useful when working with QueryStrings. Often I want to start with the current QueryString and modify before using it. Something like,
var res = Request.QueryString.Duplicate()
.ChangeField("field1", "somevalue")
.ChangeField("field2", "only if following is true", true)
.ChangeField("id", id, id>0)
.WriteLocalPathWithQuery(Request.Url)); //Uses context to write the path
For more and the source: http://www.charlesrcook.com/archive/2008/07/23/c-extension-methods-for-asp.net-query-string-operations.aspx
It's basic, but I like the style.

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents:
public static class HttpClientExt
{
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string query)
{
var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
ub.Query = string.IsNullOrEmpty(uri.Query) ? query : string.Join("&", uri.Query.Substring(1), query);
return ub.Uri;
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IEnumerable<string> query)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("&", query));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string key, string value)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value)));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, params KeyValuePair<string,string>[] kvps)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IDictionary<string, string> kvps)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
}
public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, NameValueCollection nvc)
{
return uri.AddQueryParams(nvc.AllKeys.SelectMany(nvc.GetValues, (key, value) => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))));
}
}
The docs say that uri.Query will start with a ? if it's non-empty and you should trim it off if you're going to modify it.
Note that HttpUtility.UrlEncode is found in System.Web.
Usage:
var uri = new Uri("https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/suggest").AddQueryParam("url","http://stackoverflow.com")

// USAGE
[TestMethod]
public void TestUrlBuilder()
{
Console.WriteLine(
new UrlBuilder("http://www.google.com?A=B")
.AddPath("SomePathName")
.AddPath("AnotherPathName")
.SetQuery("SomeQueryKey", "SomeQueryValue")
.AlterQuery("A", x => x + "C"));
}
Output:
http://www.google.com/SomePathName/AnotherPathName?A=BC&SomeQueryKey=SomeQueryValue
The code; you can all thank me somewhere, somehow :D
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
// By Demetris Leptos
namespace TheOperator.Foundation.Web
{
public class UrlBuilder
{
public string Scheme { get; set; }
public string Host { get; set; }
public int? Port { get; set; }
public List<string> Paths { get; set; }
public SortedDictionary<string, string> QueryPairs { get; set; }
public UrlBuilder(string url)
{
this.Paths = new List<string>();
this.QueryPairs = new SortedDictionary<string, string>();
string path = null;
string query = null;
Uri relativeUri = null;
if (!Uri.TryCreate(url, UriKind.Relative, out relativeUri))
{
var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder(url);
this.Scheme = uriBuilder.Scheme;
this.Host = uriBuilder.Host;
this.Port = uriBuilder.Port;
path = uriBuilder.Path;
query = uriBuilder.Query;
}
else
{
var queryIndex = url.IndexOf('?');
if (queryIndex >= 0)
{
path = url.Substring(0, queryIndex);
query = url.Substring(queryIndex + 1);
}
else
{
path = url;
}
}
this.Paths.AddRange(path.Split(new char[] { '/' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries));
if (query != null)
{
var queryKeyValuePairs = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(query);
foreach (var queryKey in queryKeyValuePairs.AllKeys)
{
this.QueryPairs[queryKey] = queryKeyValuePairs[queryKey];
}
}
}
public UrlBuilder AddPath(string value)
{
this.Paths.Add(value);
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder SetQuery(string key, string value)
{
this.QueryPairs[key] = value;
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder RemoveQuery(string key)
{
this.QueryPairs.Remove(key);
return this;
}
public UrlBuilder AlterQuery(string key, Func<string, string> alterMethod, bool removeOnNull = false)
{
string value;
this.QueryPairs.TryGetValue(key, out value);
value = alterMethod(value);
if (removeOnNull && value == null)
{
return this.RemoveQuery(key);
}
else
{
return this.SetQuery(key, value);
}
}
public override string ToString()
{
var path = !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(this.Host)
? string.Join("/", this.Host, string.Join("/", this.Paths))
: string.Join("/", this.Paths);
var query = string.Join("&", this.QueryPairs.Select(x => string.Concat(x.Key, "=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(x.Value))));
return string.Concat(
!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(this.Scheme) ? string.Concat(this.Scheme, "://") : null,
path,
!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(query) ? string.Concat("?", query) : null);
}
}
}

I went with the solution proposed by DSO (answered on Aug 2 '11 at 7:29), his solution does not require using HttpUtility. However, as per an article posted in Dotnetpearls, using a Dictionary is faster (in performance) than using NameValueCollection. Here is DSO's solution modified to use Dictionary in place of NameValueCollection.
public static Dictionary<string, string> QueryParametersDictionary()
{
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dictionary.Add("name", "John Doe");
dictionary.Add("address.city", "Seattle");
dictionary.Add("address.state_code", "WA");
dictionary.Add("api_key", "5352345263456345635");
return dictionary;
}
public static string ToQueryString(Dictionary<string, string> nvc)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
bool first = true;
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> pair in nvc)
{
if (!first)
{
sb.Append("&");
}
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", Uri.EscapeDataString(pair.Key), Uri.EscapeDataString(pair.Value));
first = false;
}
return sb.ToString();
}

I wrote a helper for my razor project using some of the hints from other answers.
The ParseQueryString business is necessary because we are not allowed to tamper with the QueryString object of the current request.
#helper GetQueryStringWithValue(string key, string value) {
var queryString = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString.ToString());
queryString[key] = value;
#Html.Raw(queryString.ToString())
}
I use it like this:
location.search = '?#Helpers.GetQueryStringWithValue("var-name", "var-value")';
If you want it to take more than one value, just change the parameters to a Dictionary and add the pairs to the query string.

Refactoring method

I've following method in the code.I could have some more if conditions in the future.
So just wondering how to re-factor this code from a maintenance point of view.
string MyMethod(string filter)
{
StringBuilder sbFilter = new StringBuilder(filter);
if (filter.Contains("A"))
{
sbFilter.Append("X");
}
if (filter.Contains("B"))
{
sbFilter.Append("Y");
}
if (filter.Contains("C"))
{
sbFilter.Append("Z");
}
return sbFilter.ToString();
}
Thanks.

You can put your from/to combinations into an array, which can easily be modified.
With linq you can select the values:
String FilterMethod(String filter) {
var fromTo = new[] {"A,X","B,Y","C,Z"};
return String.Concat(
from pair in fromTo
let split= pair.Split(',')
where split.Length == 2 && filter.Contains(split[0])
select split[1]
);
}
You can even make a one-liner:
String FilterMethod2(String filter) {
return String.Concat(
from pair in new[] { "A,X", "B,Y", "C,Z" }
let split = pair.Split(',')
where split.Length == 2 && filter.Contains(split[0])
select split[1]
);
}

You could simply use a list of tuples:
KeyValuePair<string, string>[] mappings = new []
{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("A", "X"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("B", "Y"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("C", "Z"),
};
string MyMethod(string filter)
{
var sbFilter = new StringBuilder(filter);
foreach (var m in mappings)
{
if (filter.Contains(m.Key))
sbFilter.Append(m.Value);
}
return sbFilter.ToString();
}
Which can be written even more concisely using LINQ:
string MyMethod(string filter)
{
return filter + string.Concat(mappings
.Where(m => filter.Contains(m.Key))
.Select(m => m.Value));
}

As # Jakub Dąbek wrote in his comment, this question is more suitable for code review forum, but I think that using a SortedDictionary will make your code more maintainable and clear. that way you will never have the need to change MyMethod function. based on your example, i would do something like that (please see my comments inside the code):
private SortedDictionary<string, string> _Dic;
public SortedDictionary<string, string> Dic
{
get
{
if (_Dic == null)
{
_Dic = new SortedDictionary<string, string>();
_Dic.Add("A", "X");
_Dic.Add("B", "Y");
_Dic.Add("C", "Z");
// add more key-pair values in the future
return _Dic;
}
else
{
return _Dic;
}
}
set
{
// important: here you can get your valus from external source!
_Dic = value;
}
}
string MyMethod(string filter)
{
StringBuilder sbFilter = new StringBuilder(filter);
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> itm in Dic)
{
if (filter.Contains(itm.Key))
{
sbFilter.Append(Dic[itm.Key]);
}
}
return sbFilter.ToString();
}

Returning integer and string

I have a function as follow. I need to return two parameters. First the index that is as list and it is done by the function. The other parameter that I need to return is a string str.
What would be your best suggestion for these outputs? a list with two different parameters? or what? Please let me know your ideas! Thanks
public List<int> index_selexted(TreeNodeCollection treeView, List<int> list)
{
List<int, List<string>> output_typ = new List<int, >();
foreach (TreeNode node in treeView)
{
if (node.Checked)
{
list.Add(node.Index);
string str = Regex.Match(node.Text, #" \((.*?)\) ").Groups[1].Value;
}
else
{
index_selexted(node.Nodes, list);
}
}
return list;
}

Well, since TreeNode.Index is not unique within the entire TreeNodeCollection then Dictionary<int, String> is not a choice, but Dictionary<int, List<String>> will do
//TODO: find a better name for dict
public Dictionary<int, List<String>> index_selexted(
TreeNodeCollection treeView,
Dictionary<int, List<String>> dict == null) { // == null for autocreation
if (null == treeView)
throw new ArgumentNullException("treeView");
if (null == dict)
dict = new Dictionary<int, List<String>>();
foreach (TreeNode node in treeView)
if (node.Checked) {
String match = Regex.Match(node.Text, #" \((.*?)\) ").Groups[1].Value;
List<String> list;
if (dict.TryGetValue(node.Index, out list))
list.Add(match);
else
dict.Add(node.Index, new List<String>() {match});
}
else
index_selexted(node.Nodes, dict);
return dict;
}
And so you'll have something like this as an output: index + all matches for it:
{1, ["abc", "def", "gh"]}
{3, ["xyz"]}
I've added dict == null in order to make the call easier:
// You don't have to pre-create the dictionary
var myDict = index_selexted(myTreeView.Nodes);

Use a Tuple
var res = new Tuple<string, List<string>>("string1", new List<string>());

You could either do
public class IndexSelectionResult{
public List<something> Index{get;set;}
public String StringResult
}
and return an instance of that, OR, if you're lazy, you can return a TUPLE:
public Tuple<List<string>, string>> myFunction(){ /* code */}

I believe you want this:
public static List<int> index_selexted(TreeNodeCollection treeView, out string str)
{
str = null;
var list = new List<int>();
var output_typ = new List<int>();
foreach (TreeNode node in treeView)
{
if (node.Checked)
{
list.Add(node.Index);
str = Regex.Match(node.Text, #" \((.*?)\) ").Groups[1].Value;
}
else
{
index_selexted(node.Nodes, list);
}
}
return list;
}
usage as such:
var treeview = sometreeview;
string output;
var result = index_selected(treeview, out output);
Console.WriteLine(output);
instead of using the list in your example (List> output_typ = new List();) consider
using a dictionary:
var output_typ = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
or a list of tuples:
var output_typ = new List<Tuple<int, List<string>>();
Hope this helps

There are a lot of ways to do this in fact, it depends on your specific use case which one you'd prefer.
Using a class
class MyResult {
public List<int> MyList { get; set; }
public string MyString { get; set; }
}
public MyResult index_selected(arg1..., arg2...) {
return new MyResult {
MyList = outputList,
MyString = "outputString"
}
}
Using a class is my preferred way. Though it may clutter if you have many return types it is by far the most readable solution.
Using a tuple
public Tuple<List<int>, string> index_selected(arg1..., arg2...) {
return Tuple.Create(outputList, "outputString");
}
My second goto option is a tuple. It is a lot more difficult to determine what the values contained in the tuple represent. But doesn't require creating more classes and is a quick solution (I use it mostly for private methods where readability is not much of a concern).
Using the out keyword
public List<int> index_selected(arg1..., out string resultString) {
resultString = null;
/* Doing calculations and such */
resultString = "
return outputList;
}
In this case the string passed to the resultString parameter will be replaced by whatever you assign to it in the method (see out keyword). Depending on your use case you may also want to look at the ref keyword.
This approach is rather error prone and is generally not preffered.

Get dictionary value by key

How can I get the dictionary value by a key on a function?
My function code (and the command I try doesn't work):
static void XML_Array(Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array)
{
String xmlfile = Data_Array.TryGetValue("XML_File", out value);
}
My button code:
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array = new Dictionary<string, string>();
Data_Array.Add("XML_File", "Settings.xml");
XML_Array(Data_Array);
}
I want on the XML_Array function the variable to be:
string xmlfile = "Settings.xml":

It's as simple as this:
String xmlfile = Data_Array["XML_File"];
Note that if the dictionary doesn't have a key that equals "XML_File", that code will throw an exception. If you want to check first, you can use TryGetValue like this:
string xmlfile;
if (!Data_Array.TryGetValue("XML_File", out xmlfile)) {
// the key isn't in the dictionary.
return; // or whatever you want to do
}
// xmlfile is now equal to the value

Just use the key name on the dictionary. C# has this:
Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dict.Add("UserID", "test");
string userIDFromDictionaryByKey = dict["UserID"];
If you look at the tip suggestion:

That is not how the TryGetValue works. It returns true or false based on whether the key is found or not, and sets its out parameter to the corresponding value if the key is there.
If you want to check if the key is there or not and do something when it's missing, you need something like this:
bool hasValue = Data_Array.TryGetValue("XML_File", out value);
if (hasValue) {
xmlfile = value;
} else {
// do something when the value is not there
}

Dictionary<String, String> d = new Dictionary<String, String>();
d.Add("1", "Mahadev");
d.Add("2", "Mahesh");
Console.WriteLine(d["1"]); // It will print Value of key '1'

static void XML_Array(Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array)
{
String value;
if(Data_Array.TryGetValue("XML_File", out value))
{
// ... Do something here with value ...
}
}

static String findFirstKeyByValue(Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array, String value)
{
if (Data_Array.ContainsValue(value))
{
foreach (String key in Data_Array.Keys)
{
if (Data_Array[key].Equals(value))
return key;
}
}
return null;
}

Here is an example which I use in my source code.
I am getting key and value from Dictionary from element 0 to number of elements in my Dictionary. Then I fill my string[] array which I send as a parameter after in my function which accept only params string[]
Dictionary<string, decimal> listKomPop = addElements();
int xpopCount = listKomPop.Count;
if (xpopCount > 0)
{
string[] xpostoci = new string[xpopCount];
for (int i = 0; i < xpopCount; i++)
{
/* here you have key and value element */
string key = listKomPop.Keys.ElementAt(i);
decimal value = listKomPop[key];
xpostoci[i] = value.ToString();
}
...
This solution works with SortedDictionary also.

Dictionary<int,string> dict = new Dictionary<int,string>{
{1,"item1"},
{2,"item2"},
{3,"item3"},
}
int key = 2 // for example
string result = dict.ContainsKey(key) ? dict[key] : null;

private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array = new Dictionary<string, string>();
Data_Array.Add("XML_File", "Settings.xml");
XML_Array(Data_Array);
}
static void XML_Array(Dictionary<string, string> Data_Array)
{
String xmlfile = Data_Array["XML_File"];
}

I use a similar method to dasblinkenlight's in a function to return a single key value from a Cookie containing a JSON array loaded into a Dictionary as follows:
/// <summary>
/// Gets a single key Value from a Json filled cookie with 'cookiename','key'
/// </summary>
public static string GetSpecialCookieKeyVal(string _CookieName, string _key)
{
//CALL COOKIE VALUES INTO DICTIONARY
Dictionary<string, string> dictCookie =
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>
(MyCookinator.Get(_CookieName));
string value;
if (dictCookie.TryGetValue( _key, out value))
{
return value;
}
else
{
return "0";
}
}
Where "MyCookinator.Get()" is another simple Cookie function getting an http cookie overall value.

(I posted this on another question and I don't know how to link to that so here it is)
A Dictionary<K,V> extension that works. I have been using it for a long time::
public static bool TryGetKey<K, V>(this IDictionary<K, V> instance, V value, out
K key)
{
foreach (var entry in instance)
{
if (!entry.Value.Equals(value))
{
continue;
}
key = entry.Key;
return true;
}
key = default(K);
return false;
}
And use as :
public static void Main()
{
Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{"1", "one"},
{"2", "two"},
{"3", "three"}
};
string value="two";
if (dict.TryGetKey(value, out var returnedKey))
Console.WriteLine($"Found Key {returnedKey}");
else
Console.WriteLine($"No key found for value {value}");
}

if (Data_Array["XML_File"] != "") String xmlfile = Data_Array["XML_File"];

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C# (C-Sharp) is a programming language developed by Microsoft that runs on the .NET Framework.

String manipulation based on dictionary - c#

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