How to handle paths to files with extra parameters in C#?

Question

I'm downloading files from the Internet inside of my application. Now I'm dealing with multiple file types so I need to able to detect what file type the file is before my application can continue. The problem that I ran into is that some of the URLs where the files are getting downloaded from contain extra parameters.

For example:

http://www.myfaketestsite.com/myaudio.mp3?id=20

Originally I was using String.EndsWith(). Obviously this doesn't work anymore. Any idea on how to detect the file type?

An alternative to parsing might be Response.ContentType – Brandon Copeland Oct 12 '11 at 21:38 — Brandon Copeland, Oct 12 '11 at 21:38

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

3

Wrap the URL in a Uri class. It will split it up into different segments that you can use, or you can use the helper methods on the Uri class itself:

var uri = new Uri("http://www.myfaketestsite.com/myaudio.mp3?id=20");
string path = uri.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Path);
// path = "http://www.myfaketestsite.com/myaudio.mp3"

Your question is a duplicate of:

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

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answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:55

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What method should I use to accomplish this. Do I get the Query property and remove it from the original path? – Edward Oct 12 '11 at 20:02
@loyalpenguin: If you use the code above, the `path` variable will contain `http://www.myfaketestsite.com/myaudio.mp3`. – Cᴏʀʏ Oct 12 '11 at 20:04

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:55

You could always split on the question mark to eliminate the parameters. e.g.

string s = "http://www.myfaketestsite.com/myaudio.mp3?id=20";
string withoutQueryString = s.Split('?')[0];

If no question mark exists, it won't matter, as you'll still be grabbing the value from the zero index. You can then do your logic on the withoutQueryString string.

How to handle paths to files with extra parameters in C#?

2 Answers2