URL Encode

What is URL Encoding (Percent Encoding)?

URL encoding converts characters into a format that can be transmitted over the Internet. URLs can only be sent over the Internet using the ASCII character-set. Since URLs often contain characters outside the ASCII set, the URL has to be converted into a valid ASCII format. URL encoding replaces unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits. URLs cannot contain spaces. URL encoding normally replaces a space with a plus (+) sign or with %20.

URL Encoding Functions:

In JavaScript, PHP, and ASP there are functions that can be used to URL encode a string. PHP has the rawurlencode() function, and ASP has the Server.URLEncode() function. In JavaScript you can use the encodeURIComponent() function. Click the "URL Encode" button to see how the JavaScript function encodes the text.

URL Encoding Reference:

The ASCII control characters %00-%1F were originally designed to control hardware devices. Control characters have nothing to do inside a URL.