Tags for this article: ascii character set, URL Encoding for HTML, url encoding reference
The URL encoding basically converts different characters into a certain format so that it can be safely transferred on the internet. URL is actually known as uniform resource locator and the web browsers request different pages form a web server by using a URL. The only way of sending the URL over the net is to use the ASCII character-set. Sometimes URLs contains certain characters which are outside the ASCII character set. In such cases the URL should be converted and this is what is done by URL encoding so that it is changed to a valid ASCII format.
Functions such as JavaScript, ASP and PHP can be used for URL encoding a string. There are a large number of ASCII characters which are represented in different ways and you will have to remember all these to become an expert in URL encoding. The ASCII character space is displayed through URL-encoding %20. By using %21 URL-encoding you can display an exclamation mark as well. On the other hand, the ASCII character % is denoted by %25 URL-encoding. The ASCII character + is denoted by %2B URL-encoding. Remembering all these characters and URL encoding is not easy but gradually you will be able to remember most of them or the most important of them.
Another very important ASCII characters are the numbers and these can also be denoted by various URL-encodes. ASCII characters such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 is denoted by %30, %31, %32, %33, %34, %35, %36, %37, %38 and %39. Remembering these codes are quite easy because these are in sequence. Displaying all the English alphabets from A to Z is very important and these are displayed using URL-encoding %41 to %59 till Y and % 5A for Z.
There are various other ASCII characters that are described by various other URL-encoding. ASCII characters such as NUL, SOH and STX which are described as null character start of header and start of text is encoded through %00, %01 and %02. Some other ASCII character such as EOT, ENQ and ACK which are described as end of transmission, enquiry and acknowledge these are encoded as %04, %05 and %06. Various other ASCII characters such as BEL, BS, HT, LF and VT are described as bell (ring), backspace, horizontal tab, line feed and vertical tab are actually encoded through %07, %08, %09, %0A and %0B.
Various other ASCII characters includes DLE, DC1, DC2, DC3, DC4, NAK and SYN is described as data link escape, device control 1, device control 2, device control 3, device control 4, negative acknowledge and synchronize. The above mentioned characters are coded as %10, %11, %12, %13, %14, %15 and %16. All these characters can be easily found online and you could copy it from their as well. URL encoding is essential for HTML as it makes the entire job much easier. Any search engine will provide information on URL encoding and it is easily understandable as well.