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

If you look under the hood the QueryString property is a NameValueCollection. When I've done similar things I've usually been interested in serialising AND deserialising so my suggestion is to build a NameValueCollection up and then pass to:

using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Collections.Specialized;

private string ToQueryString(NameValueCollection nvc)
{
    var array = (
        from key in nvc.AllKeys
        from value in nvc.GetValues(key)
            select string.Format(
                "{0}={1}",
                HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
                HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
        ).ToArray();
    return "?" + string.Join("&", array);
}

I imagine there's a super elegant way to do this in LINQ too...

I answered a similar question a while ago. Basically, the best way would be to use the class HttpValueCollection, which ASP.NET's Request.QueryString property actually is, unfortunately it is internal in the .NET framework. You could use Reflector to grab it (and place it into your Utils class). This way you could manipulate the query string like a NameValueCollection, but with all the url encoding/decoding issues taken care for you.

HttpValueCollection extends NameValueCollection, and has a constructor that takes an encoded query string (ampersands and question marks included), and it overrides a ToString() method to later rebuild the query string from the underlying collection.

Example:

  var coll = new HttpValueCollection();

  coll["userId"] = "50";
  coll["paramA"] = "A";
  coll["paramB"] = "B";      

  string query = coll.ToString(true); // true means use urlencode

  Console.WriteLine(query); // prints: userId=50&paramA=A&paramB=B

Curious that no one has mentioned QueryBuilder from AspNet.Core.

It's helpful when you have a query with duplicate key like ?filter=a&filter=b

            var qb = new QueryBuilder();
            qb.Add("filter", new string[] {"A", "B"};

Then you'll just add qb to the URI, it is converted automatically to string.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.extensions.querybuilder?view=aspnetcore-5.0

How about creating extension methods that allow you to add the parameters in a fluent style like this?

string a = "http://www.somedomain.com/somepage.html"
    .AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
    .AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
    .AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ");

string b = new StringBuilder("http://www.somedomain.com/anotherpage.html")
    .AddQueryParam("A", "TheValueOfA")
    .AddQueryParam("B", "TheValueOfB")
    .AddQueryParam("Z", "TheValueOfZ")
    .ToString(); 

Here's the overload that uses a string:

public static string AddQueryParam(
    this string source, string key, string value)
{
    string delim;
    if ((source == null) || !source.Contains("?"))
    {
        delim = "?";
    }
    else if (source.EndsWith("?") || source.EndsWith("&"))
    {
        delim = string.Empty;
    }
    else
    {
        delim = "&";
    }

    return source + delim + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key)
        + "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value);
}

And here's the overload that uses a StringBuilder:

public static StringBuilder AddQueryParam(
    this StringBuilder source, string key, string value)
{
    bool hasQuery = false;
    for (int i = 0; i < source.Length; i++)
    {
        if (source[i] == '?')
        {
            hasQuery = true;
            break;
        }
    }

    string delim;
    if (!hasQuery)
    {
        delim = "?";
    }
    else if ((source[source.Length - 1] == '?')
        || (source[source.Length - 1] == '&'))
    {
        delim = string.Empty;
    }
    else
    {
        delim = "&";
    }

    return source.Append(delim).Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key))
        .Append("=").Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value));
}

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();

In dotnet core QueryHelpers.AddQueryString() will accept an IDictionary<string,string> of key-value pairs. To save a few memory allocs and CPU cycles you can use SortedList<,> instead of Dictionary<,>, with an appropriate capacity and items added in sort order...

var queryParams = new SortedList<string,string>(2);
queryParams.Add("abc", "val1");
queryParams.Add("def", "val2");

string requestUri = QueryHelpers.AddQueryString("https://localhost/api", queryParams);

A quick extension method based version:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var parameters = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>
                             {
                                 new KeyValuePair<string, string>("A", "AValue"),
                                 new KeyValuePair<string, string>("B", "BValue")
                             };

        string output = "?" + string.Join("&", parameters.ConvertAll(param => param.ToQueryString()).ToArray());
    }
}

public static class KeyValueExtensions
{
    public static string ToQueryString(this KeyValuePair<string, string> obj)
    {
        return obj.Key + "=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(obj.Value);
    }
}

You could use a where clause to select which parameters get added to the string.

There's lots of good answers here but for those using modern C# this may be a nice utility class to keep around.

public class QueryParamBuilder
{
    private readonly Dictionary<string, string> _fields = new();
    public QueryParamBuilder Add(string key, string value)
    {
        _fields.Add(key, value);
        return this;
    }
    public string Build()
    {
        return $"?{String.Join("&", _fields.Select(pair => $"{HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Key)}={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Value)}"))}";
    }
    public static QueryParamBuilder New => new();
}

I use an internal Dictionary here because dictionaries are enumerable key value pairs internally which makes iterating over them much easier than a NameValueCollection.

Then the query string itself is a simple interpolated string with a join.

Additionally I provide a static interface into the constructor to make the construction of a new builder very easy and only allow one exposed method Add to add new query parameter values. Finally you terminate the chain with Build() to actually get the final string.

Here's an example of its usage

var queryString = QueryParamBuilder.New
     .Add("id", "0123")
     .Add("value2", 1234.ToString())
     .Add("valueWithSpace","value with spa12!@#@!ce")
     .Build();

The result is as expected

?id=0123&value2=1234&valueWithSpace=value+with+spa12!%40%23%40!ce

Hopefully some of you will find this nice and elegant.

Assuming that you want to reduce dependencies to other assemblies and to keep things simple, you can do:

var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

sb.Append("a=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfA") + "&");
sb.Append("b=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfB") + "&");
sb.Append("c=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfC") + "&");
sb.Append("d=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode("TheValueOfD") + "&");

sb.Remove(sb.Length-1, 1); // Remove the final '&'

string result = sb.ToString();

This works well with loops too. The final ampersand removal needs to go outside of the loop.

Note that the concatenation operator is used to improve readability. The cost of using it compared to the cost of using a StringBuilder is minimal (I think Jeff Atwood posted something on this topic).

The query string can be added to a URL by:

1. create a name value collection object
2. add the query string items and their values to this object
3. encode this name value collection object to the url the code is provided in the below link

https://blog.codingnovice.com/blog

public ActionResult Create()
{
    //declaring name value collection object
    NameValueCollection collection = new NameValueCollection();

    //adding new value to the name value collection object
    collection.Add("Id1", "wwe323");
    collection.Add("Id2", "454w");
    collection.Add("Id3", "tyt5656");
    collection.Add("Id4", "343wdsd");

    //generating query string
    string url = GenerateQueryString(collection);

    return View();
}

private string GenerateQueryString(NameValueCollection collection)
{
    var querystring = (
        from key in collection.AllKeys
        from value in collection.GetValues(key)
        select string.Format("{0}={1}",
            HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key),
            HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))
    ).ToArray();
    return "?" + string.Join("&", querystring);
}

I added the following method to my PageBase class.

protected void Redirect(string url)
    {
        Response.Redirect(url);
    }
protected void Redirect(string url, NameValueCollection querystrings)
    {
        StringBuilder redirectUrl = new StringBuilder(url);

        if (querystrings != null)
        {
            for (int index = 0; index < querystrings.Count; index++)
            {
                if (index == 0)
                {
                    redirectUrl.Append("?");
                }

                redirectUrl.Append(querystrings.Keys[index]);
                redirectUrl.Append("=");
                redirectUrl.Append(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(querystrings[index]));

                if (index < querystrings.Count - 1)
                {
                    redirectUrl.Append("&");
                }
            }
        }

        this.Redirect(redirectUrl.ToString());
    }

To call:

NameValueCollection querystrings = new NameValueCollection();    
querystrings.Add("language", "en");
querystrings.Add("id", "134");
this.Redirect("http://www.mypage.com", querystrings);

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.

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents:

public static class HttpClientExt
{
    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string query)
    {
        var ub = new UriBuilder(uri);
        ub.Query = string.IsNullOrEmpty(uri.Query) ? query : string.Join("&", uri.Query.Substring(1), query);
        return ub.Uri;
    }

    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IEnumerable<string> query)
    {
        return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("&", query));
    } 

    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, string key, string value)
    {
        return uri.AddQueryParams(string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value)));
    }

    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, params KeyValuePair<string,string>[] kvps)
    {
        return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
    }

    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, IDictionary<string, string> kvps)
    {
        return uri.AddQueryParams(kvps.Select(kvp => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value))));
    }

    public static Uri AddQueryParams(this Uri uri, NameValueCollection nvc)
    {
        return uri.AddQueryParams(nvc.AllKeys.SelectMany(nvc.GetValues, (key, value) => string.Join("=", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(key), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value))));
    }
}

The docs say that uri.Query will start with a ? if it's non-empty and you should trim it off if you're going to modify it.

Note that HttpUtility.UrlEncode is found in System.Web.

Usage:

var uri = new Uri("https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/suggest").AddQueryParam("url","http://stackoverflow.com")

Another approach is to create an extension of the class NameValueCollection that returns the complete Url:

public static class CustomMethods
{
    public static string ToUrl(this System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection collection)
    {
        if (collection.Count == 0) return "";

        string completeUrl = "?";
        for (int i = 0; i < collection.Count; i++)
        {
            completeUrl += new Page().Server.UrlEncode(collection.GetKey(i)) + "=" + new Page().Server.UrlEncode(collection.Get(i));
            if ((i + 1) < collection.Count) completeUrl += "&";
        }

        return completeUrl;
    }
}

Then, you can use your new method, for example:

System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection qString = new System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection();
qString.Add("name", "MyName");
qString.Add("email", "myemail@test.com");
qString.ToUrl(); //Result: "?name=MyName&email=myemail%40test.com"

Here is an implementation which uses very basic language features. It's part of a class which we have to port and maintain in Objective C so we choose to have more lines of code but easier to port and understand by a programmer that isn't very familiar with C#.

        /// <summary>
        /// Builds a complete http url with query strings.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="pHostname"></param>
        /// <param name="pPort"></param>
        /// <param name="pPage">ex "/index.html" or index.html</param>
        /// <param name="pGetParams">a Dictionary<string,string> collection containing the key value pairs.  Pass null if there are none.</param>
        /// <returns>a string of the form: http://[pHostname]:[pPort/[pPage]?key1=val1&key2=val2...</returns>

  static public string buildURL(string pHostname, int pPort, string pPage, Dictionary<string,string> pGetParams)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(200);
            sb.Append("http://");
            sb.Append(pHostname);
            if( pPort != 80 ) {
                sb.Append(pPort);
            }
            // Allows page param to be passed in with or without leading slash.
            if( !pPage.StartsWith("/") ) {
                sb.Append("/");
            }
            sb.Append(pPage);

            if (pGetParams != null && pGetParams.Count > 0)
            {
                sb.Append("?");
                foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> kvp in pGetParams)
                {
                    sb.Append(kvp.Key);
                    sb.Append("=");
                    sb.Append( System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(kvp.Value) );
                    sb.Append("&");
                }
                sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1); // Remove the final '&'
            }
            return sb.ToString();
        }

public string UrlQueryStr(object data)
{
    if (data == null)
        return string.Empty;

    object val;
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(data))
    {
        if ((val = prop.GetValue(data)) != null)
        {
            sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1}={2}", sb.Length == 0 ? '?' : '&',
                HttpUtility.UrlEncode(prop.Name), HttpUtility.UrlEncode(val.ToString()));
        }
    }
    return sb.ToString();
}

EDIT - as pointed out in the comments, this is not the way to go.

There is such a class - the URI Class. "Provides an object representation of a uniform resource identifier (URI) and easy access to the parts of the URI." (Microsoft docs).

The following example creates an instance of the Uri class and uses it to create a WebRequest instance.

C# example

Uri siteUri = new Uri("http://www.contoso.com/");

WebRequest wr = WebRequest.Create(siteUri);

Check it out, there are lots of methods on this class.