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 allowed in a URL into equivalent hexadecimal escape sequences. The WebUtility.UrlEncode(string) method creates a URL-encoded string.

URL decoding replaces hexadecimal escape sequences with corresponding ASCII character equivalents. For example, when embedded in a block of URL-encoded text, the escape sequences %3c and %3e are decoded into the characters < and >.

Namespace: System.Net
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
Assembly Versions: 4.0.0.0