Question

i am beginning with a string containing an encoded unicode character “& #xfc;“. I pass the string to an object that performs some logic and returns another string. That string is converting the original encoded character to its unicode equivalent “ü“.

I need to get the original encoded character back but so far am not able.

I have tried using the HttpUtility.HtmlEncode() method but that is returning “& #252;” which is not the same.

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

They are pretty much the same, at least for display purposes. HttpUtility.HtmlEncode is using decimal encoding, which is in the format &#DECIMAL; while your original version is in hexadecimal encoding, i.e. in the format &#xHEX;. Since fc in hex is 252 in decimal, the two are equivalent.

If you really need to get the hex-encoded version, then consider parsing out the decimal and converting it to hex before stuffing it back in to the &#xHEX; format. Something like

string unicode = "ü";
string decimalEncoded = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(unicode);
int decimal = int.Parse(decimalEncoded.Substring(2, decimalEncoded.Length - 3);
string hexEncoded = string.Format("&#x{0:X};", decimal);