A Simple Guide to Python urlencode and urldecode for Beginners – Python Tutorial

In php, we can use urlencode() and urldecode() function to encode or decode a url or string. However, how about encoding and decoding url or string in python. In this tutorial, we will introduce you how to encode and decode a url or string in python.

Encode a dictionary

We can use urllib.parse.urlencode() to encode a dictionary, which is common used when you plan to send some data to a url.

Here is an example

import urllib.parse

#query string
query = {'key':'C++','num':10}
#encode query string
query_encode = urllib.parse.urlencode(query, encoding='utf-8')
print(query_encode)

Then we can encode a query dictionary {‘key’:’C++’,’num’:10} to key=C%2B%2B&num=10

Encode a string

Here is a string in a url.

key='C++ and Python'

To encode this string, we can do like this.

key_encode = urllib.parse.quote(key, encoding='utf-8')
print(key_encode)

Then the encoding result is: C%2B%2B%20and%20Python

From the result, we can find characters + and empty space is encoded.

Decode a string

key_decode = urllib.parse.unquote(key_encode, encoding='utf-8')
print(key_decode)

The decoding result is: C++ and Python

In summary, to encode and decode a url or string in python we can:

encode: use urllib.parse.quote()

decode: use urllib.parse.unquote()