C# how to encode HTML special characters like "<" to "\u003c"

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I have a Json file which contains HTML text as well.
I have manipulated the text, but now i need to convert back the special characters as they were originally. (unicode "\u003c" instead of the real character "<")

Is there a builtin method for this?

Original text:
\u003cb\u003eTop Secret\u003c/b\u003e

After modification:
<b>Szigorúan Titkos</b>

After converting back the file to Json the HTML tags are displayed as they are or as entities, but not unicode as in the original file.

What I have tried:

- changing the encoding /possibly the wrong way as there was no successful result/

Posted 2-Feb-20 23:48pm

Member 13050667

Updated 3-Feb-20 5:04am

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-03T00:04:00

Solution 1

Try this:

C#

string escaped = @"\u003cb\u003eTop Secret\u003c/b\u003e";
string unescaped = Regex.Unescape(escaped);

Posted 3-Feb-20 0:04am

OriginalGriff

Comments

Member 13050667 3-Feb-20 6:25am

Thank you, this will be useful as well later on, but I think this is not what I need.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.
Basically I want to convert back characters like "<" to "\u003c". No "<" or "<", I need "\u003c"! :)
I hope this clears a bit :) sorry for the confusion, or if I misunderstand something.

Maciej Los 3-Feb-20 6:30am

:D:thumbsup:

Richard Deeming · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-03T05:04:00

If you're using JSON.NET, you can specify StringEscapeHandling.EscapeHtml to escape all HTML (<, >, &, ', ") and control characters (e.g. newline).

StringEscapeHandling Enumeration[^]

C#

const string json = @"""\u003cb\u003eTop Secret\u003c/b\u003e""";

string deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string>(json);
// deserialized === "<b>Top Secret</b>"

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { StringEscapeHandling = StringEscapeHandling.EscapeHtml };
string serialized = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(deserialized, settings);
// serialized === "\u003cb\u003eTop Secret\u003c/b\u003e"

Alternatively, you could write your own JsonConverter to get more control over the serialization:
Custom JsonConverter<T>[^]