Details
URL encoding, is also known as URI encoding or Percent encoding. It converts characters into a format, that only contains ASCII characters compatible with the HTTP protocol.
URL encoding replaces unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits, or Unicode characters with % followed by multiple pairs of hexadecimal digits.
Common ASCII characters that are also encoded are:
Space
is encoded either as+
sign or%20
+
sign is encoded as%2B
/
is encoded as%2F
?
is encoded as%3F
Other reserved characters listed by RFC 3986: `!` `#` `$` `&` `'` `(` `)` `*` `,` `:` `;` `=` `@` `[` `]`