HTML URI/URL Encoding

Can I use spaces (blank space chars) in links (link href),
images (img src) and other URLs?

Answer:

No. Spaces in URIs/URLs should be encoded using %20

 

URL Encoding - Percent (%) Encoding

URLs use the ASCII charset.
URL encoding replaces space characters with "%20" (percent followed by the ASCII code for a blank space).

 

Sample:

Invalid URI: http://www.yourdomain.tld/sample image.jpg

Correct URI: http://www.yourdomain.tld/sample%20image.jpg

 

Image Sample:

<img alt="alternate text" src="sample%20image.jpg">

 

Link href= Sample:

<a href="some%20other%20page.html">Link Anchor Text</a>

Notes:

  • It's best practice to avoid spaces in URLs, e.g. use "sample-image.jpg" instead of "sample image.jpg"
  • Some browsers might auto-correct invalid links in double-quotes with un-encoded spaces in it, but you should not rely on it.
  • In general: avoid un-encoded spaces and other unsafe ASCII chars in URIs.
  • Since the percent sign is used for URL encoding, any other appearance of a percent % in an URL should be encoded to %25.
  • Spaces inside a query should be replaced using the plus sign, e.g. http://www.yourdomain.tld/help%20me.php?topic=green+blue
  • Javascript contains the "encodeURI()" function to encode an URI.
  • php contains the "rawurlencode()" function to encode an URI.
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