URL Encoder / Decoder

Enter the text that you wish to encode or decode:

About URL Encoder / Decoder

Struggling with encoding a text or URL? Use this URL Encoder / Decoder and get it encoded right away. It just takes a click to do it.

Super fast, powerful, and convenient to use!

Just type or copy/paste any text or URL inside the text box. You will be all good to go!

This online tool is extremely helpful, especially when adding any special characters to a URL parameter. The entire procedure of this encoding involves replacing the unallowable characters with a percent sign and additional 2 hexadecimal values.

Want to know in detail about this web URL encoder/decoder tool?

Keep on reading!

What is Meant by URL Encoding and URL Decoding?

URL encoding, also widely known as Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and percent-coding. It is a procedure that converts the characters into a format that can be sent over the internet.

After all, in the virtual world, URLs can only be sent using the ASCII character. Now, the question may arise, what to do with the URLs comprising characters outside the ASCII set range.

Well, in that case, the URL has to be converted into a valid ASCII format. In fact, the job of the URL encoding is to replace the unsafe ASCII characters with a "%," trailed by 2 hexadecimal digits.

In other words, they basically refer to particular encoding characters in a URL by doing a replacement of them with either one or more character triplets, which contains the percent character, followed by 2 hexadecimal digits. Here, the digits of the triplets will ideally characterize the numeric value of the changed character.

Now, moving on to the URL decoding. This is the exact opposite of URL encoding. Their job is to replace the percent set (%) and hexadecimal values (which are done due to the encoding methods) to convert them into standard or regular representation.

What is the Use of URL Encoding?

Based on the URL specification RFC 1738, only a small range of characters are allowed to be used in a URL. Besides this range, you just cannot use any other characters inside a URL. Such as whitespace or passing a reserved character are considered an invalid URL characters.

So, what to do in such scenarios where you need to pass these characters? Well, in this case, the tool that can play a significant role is definitely the URL encoding. So you can finally get your work done and pass any kind of invalid URL character you need to.

Let's know about the characters that are labeled as valid URL characters:

• A to Z (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
• a to z (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz)
• 0 to 9 (0123456789)
• $ (Dollar Sign)
• - (Hyphen or Dash)
• _ (Underscore)
• . (Period)
• + (Plus sign)
• ! (Exclamation or Bang)
• * (Asterisk or Star)
• ' (Single Quote)
• ( (Open Bracket)
• ) (Closing Bracket)

How to Use This Online URL Encoder / Decoder?

When you give an input of a text or URL on the textbox and click on the submit button, then in that instant, the tool begins its work. After processing, it displays the outcomes right away on the screen.

This tool will come in handy, especially when you want to convert the encoded URL with a barely readable text into a more readable one.

An URL usually contains a non-alphanumeric letter or character, which gets encoded into a % symbol, followed by a few alphanumeric texts. Next up, the white space in the text also gets encoded by the”+” sign.

Here, URLs can only be carried over using the ASCII character set on the internet. As these URLs come with characters outside the ASCII, set range, so there is no other way but to convert them into a reusable ASCII format.

This URL encoding is basically used to replace the unsafe ASCII characters with a percent sign (%), followed successively by two hexadecimal digits. This encoding does the replacement of a space with either a plus symbol (+) or with %20.

How Does Our VISER X URL Encoder / Decoder Tool Work?

This URL encoder/decoder follows a sequence of steps that you need to follow. They are written step by step:

1. Open URL encoder/decoder tool page.
2. After opening, you will see a textbox that states to enter the text. Simply just type or copy/paste the text or URL you wish to encode or decode in the box.

3. Once you give your input, just click on the “Submit” button.

4. Based on your requested query, the tool, after processing, will give you the output of the encoded and decoded URL in two separate boxes accordingly.

5. When your work is done, you can try out several other URLs using this tool. Click on the “Try New Document” button; it will direct you to the 1^st page at that instant.

That’s all! Easy-peasy, and it takes only a few seconds to display the outcome.

What are the Kinds of URI Characters?

The characters that are recognized and accepted in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) are either reserved or unreserved characters.

Reserved characters are those characters that refer to the characters holding a special meaning. For instance, a slash character. This is commonly used to separate the various parts of a URL.

These characters must be encoded only under some certain conditions applied. These characters include:

 

On the other hand, unreserved characters are those that have no special meanings. While using the percent-encoding, the reserved characters are denoted using a unique character arrangement. These characters can be encoded but shouldn't be. They are:

 

Compared to the past, the reserved and unreserved characters, along with the conditions under which certain reserved characters hold special meaning, have changed a little bit – with alterations occurring in the specifications which manage Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and its schemes.

How Does Percent-encoding of Unreserved Characters Work?

When a particular character from the reserved set has a special meaning in a specific context needs to be carried on the internet, then what should one do?

As based on the URI scheme, it is essential that you use the specific character only for a different objective. Well, in that case, that character must be percent-encoded.

Doing this encoding of a reserved character typically involves turning the character to its corresponding byte value in ASCII and representing that value as a pair of hex digits.

Here, the digits before the percent sign are used in the URI in the place of the reserved character. While for the non-ASCII character, it is usually converted to its byte arrangement in UTF-8.

Now, what to do for the reserved characters that have no reserved purpose in a specific context? Well, in the case of the, they can either be percent-encoded or not.

For instance, “/” will still be considered as a reserved character with no reserved purposes unless a particular URI scheme depicts it as something else. It is one of the main reasons why a character doesn’t need to be percent-encoded when there is no reserved purpose in it.

When and Why Should You Use URL Encoding?

When the data of the HTML forms are submitted, then at that time, the form field names and values get encoded and thus are sent to the server in an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request text format.

This message is usually sent using the GET, POST, or via email. The encoding that is used by the default one was based on a very early version of the general Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) percent-encoding rules.

Later on, they underwent through a number of changes, such as the newline normalization and replacement of the spaces with “+” rather than using of “%20”.

The MIME kind of data encoding is still defined in a very outdated manner in the HTML and XForms conditions. While the CGI specification follows a rule for how web serves should decode data and make it available to the apps.

When sent in an HTTP GET request, the information just gets included in the query components of the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) request. And in the case of the HTTP POST request or through the mail, the data is placed in the text body while the media type name is included in the Content-Type header texts.

How Does URL Encoding Work?

URL encoding works following a sequence. Such as, its 1^st job is to do the conversion of the character to one or more bytes. After then, each of the bytes is represented by 2 hexadecimal digits led on by a percent sign (%), like %ab. As a result, this percent sign gives the URL encoded value.

Here, this sign is basically used as an escape character, where it is referred to as the Percent encoding. This pretty much looks like this:

Percent Encoded = % HEXDIG HEXDIG

For example, let’s at first understand how to URL encode the character @, so you can easily grasp the things. For encoding @, we have to at first convert it into a sequence of bytes using its ASCII value.

The ASCII value of @ in decimal is 64, which when converted to hexadecimal will become 40. After then, we will precede the hexadecimal value with a percent symbol, which ultimately, in return, will give us the final URL encoded value %40.

URL Encoding Character Classification

URL encoding comes with a classification of varied kinds of characters that cannot be placed directly inside URLs.

Let's find out about them:

ASCII control characters

The characters that are within the range 0-31 and 127 are known as the ASCII control characters. These kinds of characters are not printable and thus cannot be placed directly inside any URL without doing the encoding, no matter what. If you want to place it in the URL, you must do the encoding,

Some noteworthy examples of these control characters include backspace, carriage return, line feed, horizontal tab, vertical tab, and so on.

Reserved characters

Characters that hold special meaning within the URL are referred to as reserved characters. And hence, you cannot place them directly inside any URL without encoding or escaping them. Some examples of these reserved characters include, ?, :, /, #, &, etc.

Unsafe characters

Some characters are considered unsafe and thus have to be encoded before placing them inside any URLs. These characters consist of space, <, >, {, }, etc.

Non-ASCII characters

Non-ASCII characters are those characters that you cannot securely transmit them outside the ASCII character set range inside URLs. Before placing, you have to encode them.

Classification of the Characters	Characters	Is enoding needed?
Safe characters	Alphabets (A-Z a-z), Digits (0-9), hyphen (-), underscore (_), tilde (~), and dot (.)	No
Unsafe characters	space < > { } | ` ^ \	Yes
ASCII control characters	Characters within the range 0-31 and 127 in the ASCII character set	Yes
Non-ASCII characters	Characters outside the US-ASCII set.	Yes
Reserved ASCII control characters	: / ? # [ ] @ ! $ & ' ( )* + , ; =	Yes

Some of the Common ASCII Characters and Their URL Encoded Values: You Must Know!

ASCII Characters	URL Encoding (UTF-8)
space	%20
"	%22
%	%25
$	%24
&	%26
+	%2B
,	%2C
/	%2F
;	%3B
=	%3D
?	%3F
@	%40

To Wrap Up

For having a smooth operation of worldwide interoperability, URIs must be encoded uniformly. Thanks to the URL Encoder / Decoder tool, which has certainly made the URL encoding so much easier and more convenient than ever.

You can encode any text, string of texts, or URL using this tool that too, within a few seconds using this tool. Simple and easy to use!

Have anything to encode? Use this tool right away to encode it without facing any hassles!

Frequently Asked Question: Online URL Encoder/Decoder

Have a look at the most asked questions regarding URL and decoder online and get all your confusion clarified right away:

What is meant by percent encoding arbitrary data?

Percent-encoding, also widely known as a URL encoding, is a process that is used to encode the arbitrary data in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). They are encoded only using the limited US-ASCII characters that are legal within a URI.

What is the difference between encoding and decoding?

Encoding is basically a written method, while decoding is a reading procedure. Encoding tends to break a spoken word into portions that are written or spelled out. On the other hand, decoding breaks the written word into parts that are orally vocalized.

Why should you decode or encode a URL?

The URL representation of a character may vary from the ones you have used in your code. in other words, there is a specific grammar that ideally defines how URLs are assembled.

Otherwise, if you use a URL that contains special characters, in that case, the chances are high that, in return, they may give an unexpected outcome. that’s why to avoid such cases, decoding or encoding a URL is a must.

Why is encoding useful?

Encoding is extremely useful as it tends to keep all your data and information completely safe and secure. And until you have access to the algorithm that is used in encoding them, there is no way you cannot read them. As a result, using this, you can keep all your data and information safe and protected from the hands of the thefts as no stolen files will be of any use to them.