Getting an unexpected "?" at the end of a Registry GetValue

Question

I use the Registry class to manage values in the Registry on Windows Seven in C#.

Registry.GetValue(...);

But, I'm facing a curious behavior : Every time, the returned value is the correct one, but sometimes, it is followed by an unexpected "?"

When I check the Registry, (regedit), the "?" doesn't exist. I really don't understand from where this question mark come from.

Info :

• C#
• 3.5 framework
• windows 7 64 bits (and i want my application to work on both 32 and 64 bits systems)

Answer 1

So my question is, "who set the value"?

Perhaps whoever did the setting put in an unprintable character at the end of the string. It is probably not actually a question mark. This may be a result of a bug in the program which did the setting, not anything to do with your code, per se.

Answer 2

I found a way to remove the unexpected char, thanks to all your comments ;)

 String value = null;
        try
        {
            foreach (Char item in Registry.GetValue(registryKey, key, "").ToString().ToCharArray())
            {
                if (Char.GetUnicodeCategory(item) != System.Globalization.UnicodeCategory.OtherLetter && Char.GetUnicodeCategory(item) != System.Globalization.UnicodeCategory.OtherNotAssigned)
                {
                    value += item;
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            LOG.Error("Unable to get value of " + key + ex, ex);
        }
        return value;

I made some tests to know what kind of char appears from time to time. It was, just like you said Larry, an unicode problem. I still don't understand why this char appears sometimes.