Why is the comma URL encoded?

asp.net-mvc forms query-string urlencode
Scott Coates picture Scott Coates · Jan 12, 2012 · Viewed 30.9k times · Source

When debugging in ASP.NET MVC, I don't see a difference between:

http://mysite.com?q=hi,bye

and

http://mysite.com?q=hi%2Cbye

The querystring param "q" always has a value of "hi,bye".

So why is the comma encoded?

I want to do something like this https://stackoverflow.com/a/752109/173957.

I have this form: 

<form method="GET" action="/Search">
     <input type="hidden" name="q" value="hi,bye"/>
     <input type="submit" value="ok"/>
</form>

How can I prevent this value from being encoded?

Answer

Kyle Jones picture Kyle Jones · Jan 12, 2012

The URI spec, RFC 3986, specifies that URI path components not contain unencoded reserved characters and comma is one of the reserved characters. For sub-delims such as the comma, leaving it unencoded risks the character being treated as separator syntax in the URI scheme. Percent-encoding it guarantees the character will be passed through as data.

Related questions

How to handle checkboxes in ASP.NET MVC forms?

Caution: This question is over nine years old! Your best option is to search for newer questions, or to search the answers below looking for your specific version of MVC, as many answers here are obsolete now. If you do …

Read More
Submitting form and pass data to controller method of type FileStreamResult

I have an mvc form (made from a model) which when submitted, I want to get a parameter I have the code to set the form and get the parameter using (@Html.BeginForm("myMethod", "Home", FormMethod.Get, new { id = @item.…

Read More
How to add ID property to Html.BeginForm() in asp.net mvc?

I want to validate my form using jquery but it doesn't have an ID property as of now how to add it to the form in asp.net mvc? I am using this... <% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%> and my …

Read More