URL encoding, also known as percent encoding, is used to encode special characters in URLs so they can be transmitted over the internet. It converts characters into a format that can be safely sent through a URL by replacing non-ASCII characters or reserved characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII value.
For example:
A space ( ) is encoded as %20.
A question mark (?) is encoded as %3F.
An ampersand (&) is encoded as %26.
When is URL Encoding Needed?
Special Characters: Characters like spaces, punctuation marks, and others need to be encoded because they might have special meanings in URLs (e.g., ?, &, =, etc.).
Non-ASCII Characters: Characters beyond the standard ASCII range, such as accented letters, need to be URL encoded.
Example of URL Encoding:
If you have a string like this:
sql
Hello, how are you?
The URL-encoded version would be:
perl
Hello%2C%20how%20are%20you%3F