C# Keep Semicolon in URI

Question

I need to keep the semicolon in the URI (DO not escape it). The final url will look something like this:

http://dontclick.com?Product=CON&Properties=color;price;location

I've been messing around with UriBuilder but cannot seem to keep the semicolon.

It keeps escaping ";" as "%3d"

string url = "http://dontclick.com";
string product = "CON";
List<string> props = new List<string>{"color", "price", "location"};

var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder(url);
var paramValues = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uriBuilder.Query);
paramValues.Add("Product", product);
paramValues.Add("PropertyNames", string.Join(";", props));
uriBuilder.Query = paramValues.ToString();

string finalURL = uriBuilder.Query.ToString();

Console.WriteLine(finalURL);

//OUTPUT:
//http://dontclick.com?Product=CON&PropertyNames=color%3dprice&3dlocation

Can anyone help me keep the semicolons?

EDIT I have a few comments on why I need semicolons as they are illegal characters.

Answer: It is what the URL requires - I cannot control it. I'm querying an external site (I have my own encrypted key for access) that will return an XML file based on the parameters. In the example they explicitly tell us to separate the parameters using semicolons. When I use semicolons - it works, if I let the URL encode the semicolons as %3d - it does not work.

Unfortunately I cannot control this

Answer 1

According to the URL specification (The CFG is on page 15/16), a semicolon is an illegal character for a URL, so its being encoded out.

Either the service you're trying to use was designed poorly, or you're trying to do something you really shouldn't.

However, to answer your question:

You can string replace the finalURL:

finalUrl = finalUrl.Replace("%d3", ";");

But again, something smells funky here. Can you tell us why you need this semicolon?