URL Encoder/Decoder Online | Percent Encoding Tool
Online URL encoding and decoding tool. Convert text to URL-safe format using percent-encoding (encodeURIComponent/encodeURI). Support UTF-8 and multiple formats.
URL Encoding/Decoding
Instructions
- Encode: Convert special characters to percent-encoded format (%XX)
- Decode: Convert percent-encoded format back to original characters
- encodeURIComponent: Encodes all special characters including : / ? # @ etc.
- encodeURI: Preserves URL structure characters, only encodes special characters in values
URL Encoding Knowledge:
What is URL Encoding?
URL encoding (also called percent-encoding) is a mechanism for encoding special characters in URLs. It converts non-ASCII characters and reserved characters into a format that can be safely transmitted in URLs.
Encoding Principle
Each character is first converted to UTF-8 byte sequence, then each byte is represented as %XX where XX is the hexadecimal value. For example, space becomes %20, Chinese character '中' becomes %E4%B8%AD.
encodeURIComponent vs encodeURI
encodeURIComponent encodes all special characters and is suitable for encoding parameter values. encodeURI preserves URL structure characters (: / ? # @ etc.) and is suitable for encoding complete URLs.
Common Encoded Characters
Space→%20, !→%21, #→%23, $→%24, &→%26, '→%27, (→%28, )→%29, *→%2A, +→%2B, ,→%2C, /→%2F, :→%3A, ;→%3B, =→%3D, ?→%3F, @→%40
Key Features:
- Ensures URLs only contain valid ASCII characters
- Preserves special characters that have special meaning in URLs
- Supports encoding of any Unicode character
- Encoded results can be safely transmitted between different systems
Common Applications:
- Encoding URL query parameters
- Processing form data submission
- Building RESTful API requests
- Handling file names with special characters
- Encoding internationalized domain names (IDN)