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Core JavaScript 1.5 Reference:Global Functions:encodeURIComponent

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[edit] Summary

Core Function

Encodes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) component by replacing each instance of certain characters by one, two, or three escape sequences representing the UTF-8 encoding of the character.

[edit] Syntax

var encoded = encodeURIComponent(str);

[edit] Parameters

str 
A component of a URI.

[edit] Description

encodeURIComponent escapes all characters except the following: alphabetic, decimal digits, - _ . ! ~ * ' ( )

To avoid unexpected requests to the server, you should call encodeURIComponent on any user-entered parameters that will be passed as part of a URI. For example, a user could type "Thyme &time=again" for a variable comment. Not using encodeURIComponent on this variable will give comment=Thyme%20&time=again. Note that the ampersand and the equal sign mark a new key and value pair. So instead of having a POST comment key equal to "Thyme &time=again", you have two POST keys, one equal to "Thyme " and another (time) equal to again.

[edit] See also

decodeURI, decodeURIComponent, encodeURI