Understanding URL Encoding
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) can only contain a limited set of characters from the US-ASCII character set. Any character outside this set, including spaces, emojis, or foreign scripts, must be converted into a valid format.
Percent-Encoding
This process is called "percent-encoding". Unsafe characters are replaced with a `%` followed by two hexadecimal digits representing their ASCII code.
Space Character
A space is not allowed in URLs. It is typically encoded as %20 or sometimes a + in query parameters.
Reserved Characters
Characters like /, ?, and & have special meaning. If you need to use them literally (e.g. inside a password), they must be encoded.
Query Strings
The query string is the part of the URL after the `?`. It contains data passed to web applications in key-value pairs. Example: `?search=hello&page=1`. Parsing these strings manually can be difficult if they contain nested data or encoded characters. Our URL Parser breaks them down into a readable table for easy debugging.
Security Tip
Always encode user input before putting it into a URL to prevent "Parameter Injection" attacks or broken links.