About URL Encoding

URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). URLs can only be sent over the internet using the ASCII character set, so special characters that aren't part of this set must be converted to a valid ASCII format.

When encoding, unsafe ASCII characters are replaced with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits. For example, a space character is encoded as %20, and an ampersand (&) becomes %26. This is essential for passing data in URL query strings, form submissions, and API requests. Common characters that need encoding include spaces, ampersands, question marks, equals signs, and non-ASCII characters like accented letters or emojis.