How can I Unescape and Reescape strings in .net?

Question

I need a TextBox on a WPF control that can take in text like Commit\r\n\r (which is the .net string "Commit\\r\\n\\r") and convert it back to "Commit\r\n\r" as a .net string. I was hoping for a string.Unescape() and string.Escape() method pair, but it doesn't seem to exist. Am I going to have to write my own? or is there a more simple way to do this?

and if they want to say \r\n\r\r? (yes, this is a viable situation on this particular model) — Firoso, Apr 18 '10 at 04:55
Check this: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/netfxbcl/thread/08bb20a2-82b9-4f2f-9f1a-994961fbecc3/ — Hans Passant, Apr 18 '10 at 05:09
@Hans: good answer, please elaborate for other readers, convert to C#, and post again and I will select it as an answer. — Firoso, Apr 18 '10 at 05:12
@silky : I didn't provide the solution, Hans deserves the Rep. — Firoso, Apr 18 '10 at 05:34

score 42 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 14 '14 at 23:15

42

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Unescape(@"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHello world!")

Regex.Unescape method documentation

edited Jan 14 '14 at 23:15

Pavel Chuchuva

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answered Sep 03 '10 at 14:05

Diego F.

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System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Unescape() – Dragouf Jun 30 '11 at 13:55
13

Beware that this is `Regex` specific and also escapes strings like `@"\["` into `@"["` which is only desired if we are talking about a regex, not a normal string. – Silvermind May 02 '14 at 11:17

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 28 '15 at 11:07

Hans's code, improved version.

Made it use StringBuilder - a real performance booster on long strings

Made it an extension method

public static class StringUnescape
{
    public static string Unescape(this string txt)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(txt)) { return txt; }
        StringBuilder retval = new StringBuilder(txt.Length);
        for (int ix = 0; ix < txt.Length; )
        {
            int jx = txt.IndexOf('\\', ix);
            if (jx < 0 || jx == txt.Length - 1) jx = txt.Length;
            retval.Append(txt, ix, jx - ix);
            if (jx >= txt.Length) break;
            switch (txt[jx + 1])
            {
                case 'n': retval.Append('\n'); break;  // Line feed
                case 'r': retval.Append('\r'); break;  // Carriage return
                case 't': retval.Append('\t'); break;  // Tab
                case '\\': retval.Append('\\'); break; // Don't escape
                default:                                 // Unrecognized, copy as-is
                    retval.Append('\\').Append(txt[jx + 1]); break;
            }
            ix = jx + 2;
        }
        return retval.ToString();
    }
}

FYI the listed function has the wrong name - it is /unescaping/ a string, but is called EscapeStringChars(). — redcalx, Jun 25 '12 at 13:27
This seems to work better than other answers, but still doesn't support all C# escape sequences: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/language-specification/lexical-structure#unicode-character-escape-sequences — Gru, Apr 12 '20 at 10:30

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '12 at 15:18

3

Following methods are same as javascript escape/unescape functions:

Microsoft.JScript.GlobalObject.unescape();

Microsoft.JScript.GlobalObject.escape();

edited Jun 30 '12 at 15:18

Griwes

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answered Jun 30 '12 at 14:27

hs.jalilian

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How can I Unescape and Reescape strings in .net?

3 Answers3

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