ODOnlineDefinition

URL encoding

Noun
DefinitionURL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism used to translate characters into a format that can be safely transmitted over the internet, particularly within Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). It replaces characters that are not allowed or have special meaning in a URL (like spaces, ampersands, or non-ASCII characters) with a percent sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII value. This process prevents misinterpretation by web servers and browsers, ensuring that all data, especially in query strings, is correctly preserved. For instance, a space character is typically encoded as "%20" and a forward slash as "%2F".
Example

"When building a dynamic search query, the application must perform URL encoding on the user's input to handle spaces and special characters properly."

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Etymology & Word Origins

The term combines 'URL' (Uniform Resource Locator), an internet address standard, with 'encoding,' referring to the process of converting data into a specific format for transmission.

Translations
Spanishcodificación URL
Frenchencodage URL
GermanURL-Kodierung