URL Encode and Decode

Percent-Encoding - URL encoding

Percent-Encoding or URL encoding is a mechanism for encoding information in URI, currently defined in RFC3986. It is mainly used to encode data sent by a GET query in a URL. It owes its name to the fact that a given byte starts with a percentage sign after encoding. The encoding of a byte consists of converting it into a two-digit hexadecimal value stored in ASCII and preceded by a percentage (i.e. each encoded byte is written with three characters).

Characters A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, and '-', '_', '.', '~' are allowed in the URL. These are unreserved characters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - _ . ~

The second group of characters are reserved characters and must only be encoded under certain circumstances. Reserved characters are: ! * ' ( ) ; : @ & = + $ , / ? # [ ]

#	character	encoded
1	!	%21
2	#	%23
3	$	%24
4	'	%27
5	(	%28
6	)	%29
7	*	%2A
8	+	%2B
9	,	%2C
10	/	%2F
11	:	%3A
12	;	%3B
13	=	%3D
14	?	%3F
15	@	%40
16	[	%5B
17	]	%5D