Question 1

What is URL encoding?

Accepted Answer

URL encoding (percent encoding) converts special characters into a % followed by two hexadecimal digits. It ensures that URLs only contain ASCII characters that are safe to transmit, since URLs cannot contain spaces or non-ASCII characters.

Question 2

What is the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent?

Accepted Answer

encodeURI preserves URL-reserved characters like :/?#[]@!$&'()*+,;= so the overall URL structure stays intact. encodeURIComponent encodes those reserved characters too, so it is used for individual query parameter values.

Question 3

Should spaces be encoded as %20 or +?

Accepted Answer

Both are valid. %20 is the percent-encoded form defined by RFC 3986 and works anywhere in a URL. + (plus sign) is the application/x-www-form-urlencoded form used in HTML form query strings. Use %20 for paths and + only for query parameters.

Question 4

Is URL encoding the same as Base64?

Accepted Answer

No. URL encoding is reversible percent encoding for URL-safe transmission; Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme for arbitrary binary data. They serve different purposes and produce different outputs.

🔗 URL Encoder / Decoder

Options Configurable

Encode / Decode

History

Options Configurable

Encode / Decode

History

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