Question

App.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="1" value="An error occured.\r\nPlease try again later." />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

Code:

Dictionary<string, string> keyValuePairs = new Dictionary<string, string>();
string key = "1";

keyValuePairs.Add(key, ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["key"]);

if (keyValuePairs.ContainsKey(key))
{
  // when I hover over the object, keyValuePairs, in my debugger, I see, "An error occured.\r\nPlease try again later."
  string value1 = keyValuePairs[key];
  // now when I hover over the local variable, value, I see, "An error occured.\\r\\nPlease try again later."
}

I’m curious as to why the above code adds escape characters to “\r\n” to make it “\r\n”

I’d also like to know how to avoid getting the extra “\” characters.

Answer 1

If you are reading the string from the app.config, I assume it’s something like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="errorString" value="An error occured.\r\nPlease try again later."/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

In which case your sample code should look like this:

keyValuePairs.Add("1", @"An error occured.\r\nPlease try again later.");

And from there it should be obvious why the debugger is displaying as it does (especially if you read JaredPar’s answer.

You’re better off using a resource dictionary for storing the string, which will easily let you insert newline characters in the VS editor.

Edit: Just on a whim, I tried the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="errorString" value="An error occured.
Please try again later."/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

Compiled fine and produced the correct results.