The urlencode operation encodes the input value into a URL-safe format. It converts special characters (spaces, diacritics, symbols) into percent-encoded sequences (%xx) so that the result can safely be transmitted as part of a URL or query string.
How it works
- Input – any string.
- Output – the URL-encoded representation of the string.
- Encoding rules:
- Spaces are converted to +.
- Non-alphanumeric characters are replaced with % followed by two hex digits.
- Letters, numbers, and – _ . ~ remain unchanged.
Examples
| Input | Output |
|---|---|
| hello world | hello+world |
| ahoj světe & go | ahoj+sv%C4%9Bte+%26+go |
| info@example.com | info%40example.com |
| +420797992279 | %2B420797992279 |
Usage in PalDock
Use urlencode when you need to:
- Safely include values in query parameters of URLs.
- Normalize input before building redirect links.
- Prevent issues when passing special characters (&, @, +, spaces) to external APIs.
- Encode user-generated content (names, messages) for reliable transmission.
Best Practices
- Always apply urlencode when concatenating values into URLs.
- Use together with urldecode for round-trip transformations.
- Validate input if you expect only safe characters; unnecessary encoding may reduce readability.
- Remember that spaces become +. If the receiving system requires %20 instead, consider rawurlencode instead of urlencode.
