URL Encode

For instant text encoding, use this URL encoding tool!

The DoneTools’s URL Encode tool converts a text string into a form suitable for inclusion in a URL. This form is called percent encoding or URL encoding. This is the exact opposite of the URL Decode tool, which onverts an encoded string back into a more user-friendly form.

How to Use the URL Encoder Online

Step 1. Enter the text to be included in a URL parameter into the URL Encode box. 

Step 2. Click the Submit button and let the tool encode your text into a URL.

Step 3. Copy and paste the decoded text wherever you need it.

Using URL Encoder in Cross-Browser Testing

A URL encoder is super useful if you're doing cross-browser testing. For example, if you're using URLs in tests, as they contain special characters, they must often be first URL-encoded so that they aren't misinterpreted. 

If you pass a URL as an argument to another URL, then various characters (such as ampersands or question marks) may be treated as a part of the first original URL and not as an argument to the URL. 

If you encode your URL, then this problem goes away. Also, if the URL contains a space, it can't be clicked (as it's broken into two parts), so this space has to be replaced by the "%20" URL-encoded sequence that is equivalent to a space.

URL encoding can also be used for HTTP headers that set cookie values and for data included in HTTP POST requests.

What Does a URL Encode Tool Do?

The URL Encode tool takes a string and converts it to a URL-encoded format (also known as the percent-encoded format). It treats any non-ASCII characters as UTF-8.

What is URL Encoding?

 Although it is frequently used, the term "URL encoding" is slightly inaccurate. Not just URLs, but the broader category of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), which includes Uniform Resource Names (URNs), are covered by the encoding.

URL parameter values can include ASCII alphanumeric characters without difficulty. However, certain characters are “reserved,” and they have to be encoded to make sure that the server interprets the URL correctly. 

URL encoding shouldn’t be done anywhere except in parameter values. Characters are encoded by replacing them with a percent sign (%), followed by the appropriate two-digit hexadecimal string.

All characters other than those deemed “safe” are replaced when a URL is encoded. The only safe characters are:

• Upper and lowercase ASCII letters
• Numbers
• The following characters: $ – _ . + ! * ‘ ( ) ,

All other characters, including non-printing characters and anything outside of 7-bit ASCII, need to be encoded. Other characters can be encoded, but there’s no benefit — in some cases, there can even be some risk. If the server-side software isn’t expecting encoded characters and doesn’t decode them, it may not handle the provided input properly.

The URL encoding tool assumes it is getting either ASCII or UTF-8 text. However, the encoding itself doesn’t assume receipt of any specific character set. These are merely bytes that the server can interpret however it is programmed to do so. They can be interpreted as UTF-8, Latin-1, or anything else. Most websites today expect UTF-8, but there’s no requirement forcing them to do so. Some older websites will interpret URL parameters in Latin-1, Microsoft Windows-1252, and so on. (Source: Wikipedia)

Why Use This Online URL Encoding Tool?

In order for a string of alphanumeric characters to be understood by computers, encoding, also referred to as percent-encoding, is a straightforward process that assigns a special character or characters to the string. URL encode, in particular, refers to a specific form of encoding used for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) allowing characters to be replaced with their corresponding ASCII equivalent.