I am getting a string in my C# code that es from some javascript serialization and I see a bunch of strings like this:

  Peanut Butter \u0026 Jelly

I tried doing this:

  string results  = resultFromJsonSerialization();
  results = results.Replace("\u0026", "&");
  return results;

and I am expecting that to change to:

 Peanut Butter & Jelly

but it doesn't seem to do the replace. What is the correct way to do this replacement in C#?

I am getting a string in my C# code that es from some javascript serialization and I see a bunch of strings like this:

  Peanut Butter \u0026 Jelly

I tried doing this:

  string results  = resultFromJsonSerialization();
  results = results.Replace("\u0026", "&");
  return results;

and I am expecting that to change to:

 Peanut Butter & Jelly

but it doesn't seem to do the replace. What is the correct way to do this replacement in C#?

• javascript
• c#
• serialization
• replace

• 3 stackoverflow./questions/6990347/… – Rob Schmuecker Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 17:54
• 2 Use another backslash to escape that backslash. "\\u0026" in reality is "\u0026" – Rogue Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 17:56
• 1 Or you can use the string literal symbol e.g. @"\u0026". – Kevin Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 17:58
• @RobSchmuecker no offense here, but why didn't you flag this question as duplicate? – user57508 Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 18:04
• @AndreasNiedermair I'm not au fait enough with C# to make that distinction unfortunately! – Rob Schmuecker Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 18:05

2 Answers 2

You can use Regex Unescape() method.

  string results  = resultFromJsonSerialization();
  results = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Unescape(results);
  return results;

You can also utilize the Server utility for HTML encode.

  results = ControllerContext.HttpContext.Server.HtmlDecode(results);

mark it as literal

results.Replace(@"\u0026", "&");