How to build a query string for a URL in C#?

Question

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?

Answer 1

// 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);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

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();

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Just for those that need the VB.NET version of the top-answer:

Public Function ToQueryString(nvc As System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection) As String
    Dim array As String() = nvc.AllKeys.SelectMany(Function(key As String) nvc.GetValues(key), Function(key As String, value As String) String.Format("{0}={1}", System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))).ToArray()
    Return "?" + String.Join("&", array)
End Function

And the version without LINQ:

Public Function ToQueryString(nvc As System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection) As String
    Dim lsParams As New List(Of String)()

    For Each strKey As String In nvc.AllKeys
        Dim astrValue As String() = nvc.GetValues(strKey)

        For Each strValue As String In astrValue
            lsParams.Add(String.Format("{0}={1}", System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(strKey), System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(strValue)))
        Next ' Next strValue
    Next ' strKey
    Dim astrParams As String() = lsParams.ToArray()
    lsParams.Clear()
    lsParams = Nothing

    Return "?" + String.Join("&", astrParams)
End Function ' ToQueryString

And the C# version without LINQ:

    public static string ToQueryString(System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection nvc)
    {
        List<string> lsParams = new List<string>();

        foreach (string strKey in nvc.AllKeys)
        {
            string[] astrValue = nvc.GetValues(strKey);

            foreach (string strValue in astrValue)
            {
                lsParams.Add(string.Format("{0}={1}", System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(strKey), System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(strValue)));
            } // Next strValue

        } // Next strKey

        string[] astrParams =lsParams.ToArray();
        lsParams.Clear();
        lsParams = null;

        return "?" + string.Join("&", astrParams);
    } // End Function ToQueryString

Answer 5

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;
}

Answer 6

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;
}