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javaurlurlencode

URLEncoder not able to translate space character

I am expecting

System.out.println(java.net.URLEncoder.encode("Hello World", "UTF-8"));

to output:

Hello%20World

(20 is ASCII Hex code for space)

However, what I get is:

Hello+World

Am I using the wrong method? What is the correct method I should be using?

Solution

  • This behaves as expected. The URLEncoder implements the HTML Specifications for how to encode URLs in HTML forms.

    From the javadocs:

    This class contains static methods for converting a String to the application/x-www-form-urlencoded MIME format.

    and from the HTML Specification:

    application/x-www-form-urlencoded

    Forms submitted with this content type must be encoded as follows:

    1. Control names and values are escaped. Space characters are replaced by `+'

    You will have to replace it, e.g.:

    System.out.println(java.net.URLEncoder.encode("Hello World", "UTF-8").replace("+", "%20"));