ASP.NET MVC Passing Lists to RouteData QueryString

Question

The recommended approach for passing lists of values as a QueryString is

www.site.com/search?value=1&value=2&value=3&value=4

ASP.N

Answer 1

I've come up with a solution to this myself by making a new class RouteDataList()

public class RouteDataList<T> : List<T>
{
    public RouteDataList(IEnumerable<T> enumerable) : base(enumerable) { }

    public RouteDataList() : base() { }

    public override string ToString()
    {            
        string output = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < this.Count; i++)
        {
            output += i < this.Count - 1 ? this[i] + "-" : this[i].ToString();
        }

        return output;
    }

    public static List<Int32> ParseInts(string input)
    {
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(input)) return null;

        List<Int32> parsedList = new List<int>();
        string[] split = input.Split('-');
        foreach (string s in split)
        {
            int value;
            if(Int32.TryParse(s, out value)) parsedList.Add(value);
        }
        return parsedList;
    }
}

Use as follows:

RouteDataList<Int32> valuelist = new RouteDataList<Int32>(){5,6,7,8};
RouteDataList<Int32> anothervaluelist = new RouteDataList<Int32>(){12,13,14,15};

Then Pass to any function that takes a RouteValueDictionary/Anonymous Type:

return RedirectToAction("View", "Browse", new {valuelist, anothervaluelist } );
// Produces http://www.site.com/browse/view?valuelist=5-6-7-8&anothervaluelist=12-13-14-15

// To Parse back to a list:
List<Int32> values = RouteDataList<Int32>.ParseInts(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["valuelist"])