Uri.ToString() Method in C#

The Uri.ToString() method in C# is used to get a canonical string representation for the specified Uri instance. This method returns the complete URI as a formatted string, including all components such as scheme, host, path, query, and fragment.

Syntax

Following is the syntax −

public override string ToString();

Return Value

This method returns a string that contains the unescaped canonical representation of the Uri instance. All characters are unescaped except #, ?, and %.

Using Uri.ToString() Method

Basic Example

Let us see how to use the Uri.ToString() method to get string representations of different URI formats −

using System;

public class Demo {
   public static void Main() {
      Uri newURI1 = new Uri("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/");
      Console.WriteLine("URI = " + newURI1);
      Console.WriteLine("String representation = " + newURI1.ToString());
      
      Uri newURI2 = new Uri("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jquery.htm#abcd");
      Console.WriteLine("\nURI = " + newURI2);
      Console.WriteLine("String representation = " + newURI2.ToString());
      
      if(newURI1.Equals(newURI2))
         Console.WriteLine("\nBoth the URIs are equal!");
      else
         Console.WriteLine("\nBoth the URIs aren't equal!");
      
      Uri res = newURI1.MakeRelativeUri(newURI2);
      Console.WriteLine("Relative uri = " + res);
   }
}

The output of the above code is −

URI = https://www.tutorialspoint.com/
String representation = https://www.tutorialspoint.com/
URI = https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jquery.htm#abcd
String representation = https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jquery.htm#abcd
Both the URIs aren't equal!
Relative uri = jquery.htm#abcd

Uri Components in ToString() Output

Example

The following example demonstrates how ToString() preserves all URI components −

using System;

public class UriComponentsDemo {
   public static void Main() {
      Uri complexUri = new Uri("https://user:pass@www.example.com:8080/path/to/page?query=value&param=test#section");
      
      Console.WriteLine("Complete URI: " + complexUri.ToString());
      Console.WriteLine("Scheme: " + complexUri.Scheme);
      Console.WriteLine("Host: " + complexUri.Host);
      Console.WriteLine("Port: " + complexUri.Port);
      Console.WriteLine("Path: " + complexUri.AbsolutePath);
      Console.WriteLine("Query: " + complexUri.Query);
      Console.WriteLine("Fragment: " + complexUri.Fragment);
   }
}

The output of the above code is −

Complete URI: https://user:pass@www.example.com:8080/path/to/page?query=value&param=test#section
Scheme: https
Host: www.example.com
Port: 8080
Path: /path/to/page
Query: ?query=value&param=test
Fragment: #section

ToString() vs Other Uri Methods

Example

using System;

public class UriMethodsComparison {
   public static void Main() {
      Uri uri = new Uri("https://example.com/path with spaces?query=hello world");
      
      Console.WriteLine("ToString(): " + uri.ToString());
      Console.WriteLine("AbsoluteUri: " + uri.AbsoluteUri);
      Console.WriteLine("OriginalString: " + uri.OriginalString);
   }
}

The output of the above code is −

ToString(): https://example.com/path with spaces?query=hello world
AbsoluteUri: https://example.com/path%20with%20spaces?query=hello%20world
OriginalString: https://example.com/path with spaces?query=hello world

Conclusion

The Uri.ToString() method provides a convenient way to get the canonical string representation of a URI instance with unescaped characters. It preserves all URI components and is useful for display purposes and string comparisons where human-readable format is preferred over escaped format.