Decode HTML escaped characters back to normal string in C#

Question

My question is simple. I searched a little online, but could not find a quick way to unescape HTML text in a string.

For example:
"< > &" should be returned to "< > &" as a string.

Is there a quick way, or do I have to write my own unescaper?

Solution 1

use System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode or System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode

var decoded = HttpUtility.HtmlDecode("< > &");

Solution 2

If you're using .NET 4.5 then you can use the HttpUtility.HtmlDecode method.

Solution 3

HttpUtility.UrlDecode("Your escaped String", System.Text.Encoding.Default);

Comments

[Mario Stoilov]

Is there a difference between these two?

[P-L]

HttpUtility.HtmlDecode is available since .NET 1.1. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/…

[Hitesh]

it does not unescape &#0000106&#0000097&#0000118

[Hitesh]

@jazzcat, did you find the solution?