[#absl-UrlEscape]
= xref:absl.adoc[absl]::UrlEscape
:relfileprefix: ../
:mrdocs:

Escapes a string so it can be safely used as a value in a URL component by replacing all characters that are not "unreserved characters" with percent‐escapes. See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986

== Synopsis

Declared in `<absl/strings/escaping.h>`

[source,cpp,subs="verbatim,replacements,macros,-callouts"]
----
[[nodiscard]]
std::string
UrlEscape(std::string_view input);
----

== Description

Usage note: URLs use "reserved characters" (like ?, &, =, /) as structural syntax. This function escapes these syntax characters. The correct use of this function is to clean individual URL components _before_ assembling them into the final URL structure. Do not run it on a fully constructed URL, as this will turn structural delimiters into URL component data.

Example (encoding "gift for mom & dad" as a URL query parameter):

std::string url = absl::StrFormat("https://www.google.com/search?q=%s", absl::UrlEscape("gift for mom & dad")); assert(url == "https://www.google.com/search?q=gift%20for%20mom%20%26%20dad");

== Return Value

The escaped string.

[NOTE]
====
The return value https://en.cppreference.com/cpp/language/attributes/nodiscard[should not be discarded^].
====
== Parameters

[cols="1,4"]
|===
| Name| Description
| *input*
| The URL component to escape.
|===


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