URLEncodedFormat

Description

Generates a URL-encoded string. For example, it replaces spaces with %20, and non-alphanumeric characters with equivalent hexadecimal escape sequences. Passes arbitrary strings within a URL (ColdFusion automatically decodes URL parameters that are passed to a page).

Return value

A copy of a string, URL-encoded.

Syntax

URLEncodedFormat(string [, charset ])

History

New in ColdFusion MX: the charset parameter is new.

Parameters

Parameter Description

string
A string or a variable that contains one

charset
A Java character set name. Optional.
The following values are typically used:

UTF-8

ISO-8859-1

UTF-16

US-ASCII

UTF-16BE

UTF-16LE

For a list of character sets, see:
http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset-lang.html

Parameter	Description
string	A string or a variable that contains one
charset	A Java character set name. Optional. The following values are typically used: UTF-8 ISO-8859-1 UTF-16 US-ASCII UTF-16BE UTF-16LE For a list of character sets, see: http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset-lang.html

Usage

URL encoding formats some characters with a percent sign and the two-character hexadecimal representation of the character. For example, a character whose code is 129 is encoded as %81. A space is encoded with a plus sign.

Query strings in HTTP are always URL-encoded.

Example

<h3>URLEncodedFormat Example</h3>
<cfif IsDefined("url.myExample")>
  <p>The url variable url.myExample was passed from the previous link ... 
  its value is:
  <br><b>"<cfoutput>#url.myExample#</cfoutput>"</b>
</cfif>
<p>This function returns a URL encoded string.
<cfset s = "My url-encoded string has special characters & other stuff">
<p> <A HREF = "urlencodedformat.cfm?myExample=<cfoutput>#URLEncodedFormat(s)#
</cfoutput>">Click me</A>