URL Encode a String

· 179 words · 1 minute read
#url #encode #query #param #plus #spaces #amp #net #package

If you are coming from a PHP background you’re probably very used to functions like urlencode() and rawurlencode(). The good news is you can do the same in Go and rather simply too. In the net/url package there’s a QueryEscape function which accepts a string and will return the string with all the special characters encoded so they can be added to a url safely. An example of is converting the ‘+’ character into %2B.

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {

	text := "1 + 2, example for golangcode.com"
	fmt.Println("Before:", text)

	output := url.QueryEscape(text)
	fmt.Println("After:", output)
}

url encode query string basic

Alternatively, use url.Values for building a longer query

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {

	// Use net/url's value list to build query, then encode it
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Add("q", "1 + 2")
	params.Add("s", "example for golangcode.com")
	output := params.Encode()

	fmt.Println("After:", output)
}

url encode query string with values

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Author:  Edd Turtle

Edd is the Lead Developer at Hoowla, a prop-tech startup, where he spends much of his time working on production-ready Go and PHP code. He loves coding, but also enjoys cycling and camping in his spare time.

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