Programming Tips - Java: Encode a string so its safe to use in a URL

Date: 2013dec21 Update: 2025sep22 Language: Java Keywords: for Q. Java: Encode a string so its safe to use in a URL A. Use URLEncoder.encode() making sure to handle a possible exception. Shown in this full example:
import java.net.URLEncoder; import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException; class Demo { static String encodeForUrl(final String param) { try { return URLEncoder.encode(param, "UTF-8"); } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) { return ""; } } public static final void main(String[] args) { final String param = "Hello World"; final String url = "http://example.com?param=" + encodeForUrl(param); System.out.println("url=" + url); } }
Output:
url=http://example.com?param=Hello+World