A Unicode string in %UnicodeValue notation.
If characters such as blanks and punctuation are passed in an HTTP stream, they might be misinterpreted at the receiving end. URL encoding converts characters that are not valid in a URL to character-entity equivalents; URL decoding reverses the encoding. For example, when embedded in a block of text to be transmitted in a URL, the characters < and > are encoded as %3c and %3e.