What is URL Encoding and How does it work?
URL Encoding is a way to translate reserved and non-ascii characters in URLs to a format that is universally accepted and understood by all web browsers and servers. It makes the URLs more reliable and secure.
What is URL encoding or Percent Encoding?
URLs in the world wide web can only contain ASCII alphanumeric characters and some other safe characters like hyphen (-), underscore (_), tilde (~), and dot (.).
Alphabets / Digits / "-" / "_" / "~" / "."
Any other character apart from the above list must be encoded.
URL encoding, also known as percent encoding, is a way to encode or escape reserved, unprintable, or non-ASCII characters in URLs to a safe and secure format that can be transmitted over the internet. It is also used in preparing data for submitting HTML forms with content-type application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
ASCII Character Encoding Reference
The following table is a reference of ASCII characters to their corresponding URL Encoded form.
The following table uses rules defined in RFC 3986 for URL encoding.
| Decimal | Character | URL Encoding (UTF-8) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | NUL(null character) | %00 |
| 1 | SOH(start of header) | %01 |
| 2 | STX(start of text) | %02 |
| 3 | ETX(end of text) | %03 |
| 4 | EOT(end of transmission) | %04 |
| 5 | ENQ(enquiry) | %05 |
| 6 | ACK(acknowledge) | %06 |
| 7 | BEL(bell (ring)) | %07 |
| 8 | BS(backspace) | %08 |
| 9 | HT(horizontal tab) | %09 |
| 10 | LF(line feed) | %0A |
| 11 | VT(vertical tab) | %0B |
| 12 | FF(form feed) | %0C |
| 13 | CR(carriage return) | %0D |
| 14 | SO(shift out) | %0E |
| 15 | SI(shift in) | %0F |
| 16 | DLE(data link escape) | %10 |
| 17 | DC1(device control 1) | %11 |
| 18 | DC2(device control 2) | %12 |
| 19 | DC3(device control 3) | %13 |
| 20 | DC4(device control 4) | %14 |
| 21 | NAK(negative acknowledge) | %15 |
| 22 | SYN(synchronize) | %16 |
| 23 | ETB(end transmission block) | %17 |
| 24 | CAN(cancel) | %18 |
| 25 | EM(end of medium) | %19 |
| 26 | SUB(substitute) | %1A |
| 27 | ESC(escape) | %1B |
| 28 | FS(file separator) | %1C |
| 29 | GS(group separator) | %1D |
| 30 | RS(record separator) | %1E |
| 31 | US(unit separator) | %1F |
| 32 | space | %20 |
| 33 | ! | %21 |
| 34 | " | %22 |
| 35 | # | %23 |
| 36 | $ | %24 |
| 37 | % | %25 |
| 38 | & | %26 |
| 39 | ' | %27 |
| 40 | ( | %28 |
| 41 | ) | %29 |
| 42 | * | %2A |
| 43 | + | %2B |
| 44 | , | %2C |
| 45 | - | %2D |
| 46 | . | %2E |
| 47 | / | %2F |
| 48 | 0 | %30 |
| 49 | 1 | %31 |
| 50 | 2 | %32 |
| 51 | 3 | %33 |
| 52 | 4 | %34 |
| 53 | 5 | %35 |
| 54 | 6 | %36 |
| 55 | 7 | %37 |
| 56 | 8 | %38 |
| 57 | 9 | %39 |
| 58 | : | %3A |
| 59 | ; | %3B |
| 60 | < | %3C |
| 61 | = | %3D |
| 62 | > | %3E |
| 63 | ? | %3F |
| 64 | @ | %40 |
| 65 | A | %41 |
| 66 | B | %42 |
| 67 | C | %43 |
| 68 | D | %44 |
| 69 | E | %45 |
| 70 | F | %46 |
| 71 | G | %47 |
| 72 | H | %48 |
| 73 | I | %49 |
| 74 | J | %4A |
| 75 | K | %4B |
| 76 | L | %4C |
| 77 | M | %4D |
| 78 | N | %4E |
| 79 | O | %4F |
| 80 | P | %50 |
| 81 | Q | %51 |
| 82 | R | %52 |
| 83 | S | %53 |
| 84 | T | %54 |
| 85 | U | %55 |
| 86 | V | %56 |
| 87 | W | %57 |
| 88 | X | %58 |
| 89 | Y | %59 |
| 90 | Z | %5A |
| 91 | [ | %5B |
| 92 | \ | %5C |
| 93 | ] | %5D |
| 94 | ^ | %5E |
| 95 | _ | %5F |
| 96 | ` | %60 |
| 97 | a | %61 |
| 98 | b | %62 |
| 99 | c | %63 |
| 100 | d | %64 |
| 101 | e | %65 |
| 102 | f | %66 |
| 103 | g | %67 |
| 104 | h | %68 |
| 105 | i | %69 |
| 106 | j | %6A |
| 107 | k | %6B |
| 108 | l | %6C |
| 109 | m | %6D |
| 110 | n | %6E |
| 111 | o | %6F |
| 112 | p | %70 |
| 113 | q | %71 |
| 114 | r | %72 |
| 115 | s | %73 |
| 116 | t | %74 |
| 117 | u | %75 |
| 118 | v | %76 |
| 119 | w | %77 |
| 120 | x | %78 |
| 121 | y | %79 |
| 122 | z | %7A |
| 123 | { | %7B |
| 124 | | | %7C |
| 125 | } | %7D |
| 126 | ~ | %7E |
| 127 | DEL(delete (rubout)) | %7F |
