ODOnlineDefinition

Character escaping (URI)

Noun
DefinitionCharacter escaping in the context of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) refers to the process of replacing characters that are not permitted or have special meaning within a URI structure with a percent-encoded equivalent. This mechanism ensures that a URI remains syntactically valid and unambiguous when transmitting data that might contain reserved or unsafe characters, such as spaces, ampersands, or slashes. By converting these characters into a sequence starting with a percent sign (%) followed by the character's hexadecimal ASCII value, the URI can be safely parsed and interpreted by systems. It is crucial for web applications to correctly handle URI escaping to prevent errors and security vulnerabilities.
Example

"To include a space in a URL path, character escaping replaces it with '%20', so 'my file.txt' becomes 'my%20file.txt' in the URI."

Contextual Usage Checker

Paste a sentence using this word and AI will evaluate if it's correct.

Etymology & Word Origins

Derived from 'character' referring to symbols, and 'escaping' in a computing context meaning to treat a character specially, specifically for URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) standards.

Translations
Spanishescape de caracteres (URI)
Frenchéchappement de caractères (URI)
GermanZeichen-Escaping (URI)