URL Encoder

URL encoding, also known as percent encoding, is a method used to convert reserved, unprintable, or non-ASCII characters in URLs into a safe and secure format that can be transmitted over the internet. It ensures that URLs contain only ASCII alphanumeric characters and some safe symbols like hyphen (-), underscore (_), tilde (~), and dot (.).

How does URL Encoding Work?

URL encoding involves converting characters into one or more bytes and representing each byte with two hexadecimal digits preceded by a percent sign (%). This process, also known as percent encoding, utilizes the percent sign as an escape character. For example, the character @ is encoded as %40 because its ASCII value is 64, which converts to 40 in hexadecimal.

URL Encoding Character Classification

1. Safe Characters: Alphabets (A-Z a-z), digits (0-9), hyphen (-), underscore (_), tilde (~), and dot (.). No encoding is required for these characters.
2. ASCII Control Characters: Characters in the range 0-31 and 127 in the ASCII character set. Encoding is required for these unprintable characters.
3. Reserved Characters: Special characters like ?, :, /, #, &, etc., which have predefined meanings within URLs. Encoding is necessary for these characters.
4. Unsafe Characters: Characters like space, <, >, {, }, etc., which must be encoded for secure transmission in URLs.
5. Non-ASCII Characters: Characters outside the US-ASCII set, which should be encoded for proper URL handling.

Common ASCII Characters and Their URL Encoded Values

• Space: %20
• ": %22
• %: %25
• &: %26
• /: %2F
• =: %3D
• ?: %3F
• @: %40

These encodings ensure that URLs are correctly interpreted and transmitted across different systems on the internet.