How to Properly Encode URL Parameters in Python: Addressing Limitations of `urllib.quote()` and `urllib.urlencode()`

Encode URL Parameters with Percent-Encoding in Python

When percent-encoding URL parameters to prevent errors and ensure proper normalization, the built-in urllib.quote() function can fall short.

Default Encoding Omission:

Using urllib.quote() as follows:

url = "http://example.com?p=" + urllib.quote(query)

Omits encoding crucial characters like / to /, which causes issues with OAuth normalization.

Unicode Support Deficiency:

Moreover, it fails to handle Unicode strings, resulting in exceptions when attempting to encode non-ASCII characters.

Improved Encoding with urllib.parse.quote() and safe Parameter:

To address these limitations, utilize urllib.parse.quote() from Python 3, which provides a solution:

urllib.parse.quote(string, safe='/', encoding=None, errors=None)

The safe parameter defaults to '/', but specifying an empty string disables additional ASCII character exclusions, thus ensuring proper encoding of /:

urllib.parse.quote('/test', safe='') # Encodes '/' to '%2F'

Fixing Unicode Handling in Python 2:

In Python 2, there was a Unicode handling bug with urllib.quote(). To work around it, manually encode the string as UTF-8 before applying the percent-encoding:

query = urllib.quote(u"Müller".encode('utf8'))
print urllib.unquote(query).decode('utf8') # Outputs: Müller

Alternative: urllib.urlencode()

For a simpler approach, consider using urllib.urlencode(), which handles both percent-encoding and Unicode automatically:

encoded_params = urllib.urlencode({'p': query}) # Properly encodes '/' and supports Unicode

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