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| Chapter 15 The java.net Package |

# URLEncoder

## Name

URLEncoder

## Synopsis

Class Name:

  `java.net.URLEncoder`

Superclass:

  `java.lang.Object`

Immediate Subclasses:

  None

Interfaces Implemented:

  None

Availability:

  JDK 1.0 or later

## Description

The `URLEncoder` class defines a single `static` method that converts a `String` to its URL-encoded form. More precisely, the `String` is converted to a MIME type called `x-www-form-urlencoded`.

This is the format used when posting forms on the Web. The algorithm leaves letters, numbers, and the dash (`-`), underscore (`_` ), period (`.`), and asterisk (`*`) characters unchanged. Space characters are converted to plus signs (`+`). All other characters are encoded with a percent sign (`%`) followed by the character code represented as a two-digit hexadecimal number. For example, consider the following string:

    Jean-Louis Gassée

This string gets encoded as:

    Jean-Louis+Gas%8ee

The point of the `URLEncoder` class is to provide a way to canonicalize a string into an extremely portable subset of ASCII that can be handled properly by computers around the world.

## Class Summary

    public class java.net.URLEncoder extends java.lang.Object {
      // Class Methods
      public static String encode(String s);
    }

## Class Methods

### encode

#### public static String encode(String s)

Parameters

  `s`

    The string to encode.

Returns

  A URL-encoded string.

Description

  This method returns the contents of the `String` in the `x-www-form-urlencoded` format.

## Inherited Methods

Method | Inherited From | Method | Inherited From
--- | --- | --- | ---
`clone()` | `Object` | `equals(Object)` | `Object`
`finalize()` | `Object` | `getClass()` | `Object`
`hashCode()` | `Object` | `notify()` | `Object`
`notifyAll()` | `Object` | `toString()` | `Object`
`wait()` | `Object` | `wait(long)` | `Object`
`wait(long timeout, int nanos)` | `Object` |  |

## See Also

`String`, `URL`

URLConnection |  | URLStreamHandler