Tool Capabilities

This tool performs URL encoding (also known as percent-encoding) and decoding. It converts characters that are not allowed in URLs into their percent-encoded equivalents (e.g., space becomes %20) and reverses the process, making URLs safe for transmission and interpretable by web servers and browsers.

• Encodes strings into URL-safe format using percent-encoding
• Decodes percent-encoded URL strings back to their original form
• Handles common special characters and reserved characters correctly
• Supports encoding/decoding of full URLs or specific components
• Provides options to encode all characters or only necessary ones (Future enhancement)
• Operates entirely offline within your browser

Common Use Cases

1. Constructing Query Strings

   Encode parameter values containing spaces, &, =, or other special characters before adding them to a URL query string (e.g., search?q=hello%20world&lang=en).

2. Making URLs Safe for Sharing

   Encode user-generated content or data with special symbols before including it in URL paths or parameters to prevent errors or security issues.

3. Debugging Encoded URLs

   Decode complex or unreadable URLs (often found in logs, analytics, or browser history) to understand their original parameters and paths.

4. Working with Web APIs

   Ensure data sent to REST APIs via URL parameters or path segments is correctly encoded according to RFC 3986.

5. Understanding Percent-Encoding

   Learn how different characters (spaces, symbols, non-ASCII) are represented in URLs when encoded.

6. Encoding Data in mailto: Links

   Safely encode subject lines or body content containing special characters for use in mailto: URLs.

7. Handling International Characters

   Encode non-ASCII characters (like accents or characters from other languages) for reliable use in URLs.

8. Preparing URLs for Embedding

   Encode URLs before embedding them in text formats like Markdown or HTML where characters like & might conflict.

9. Creating Bookmarklets

   Encode JavaScript code containing special characters to create functional bookmarklets (javascript:...).

10. Decoding Obfuscated Links

    Analyze tracking parameters or decode URLs that have been intentionally percent-encoded for obfuscation.

Technical Details

The tool primarily uses the browser's built-in JavaScript functions: encodeURIComponent() for encoding and decodeURIComponent() for decoding. encodeURIComponent() is typically preferred as it encodes characters like &, =, ?, #, which have special meaning in URLs. encodeURI() exists but encodes fewer characters. The process converts unsafe characters into a % followed by their two-digit hexadecimal representation based on their UTF-8 encoding. The decoding process reverses this transformation.