URL-Encoded Text

URL-encoded text is text which has been encoded into a URL as a file name, search query, or CGI script parameter. Certain characters which are part of the URL syntax are not allowed to occur in literal form in the URL. These characters must be encoded with alternate representations or escape sequences. A '%' followed by two hexadecimal digits may be used to encode any unallowed character. Other encodings may be used for specific URL types (e.g., for HTTP URLs the ASCII space character can be encoded by the '+' character).

URLs:

Uniform Resource Locators

A product of the World Wide Web Consortium, this document defines addressing terms and links to specifications and RFCs relevant to URLs, and links to historical information.

W3E References:

character entity

unescape