How to Properly Encode HTTP URLs in Java?

Encoding HTTP URL Addresses in Java

In Java, the java.net.URLEncoder utility is commonly used to encode HTML form data. However, it may not be suitable for encoding HTTP URLs due to its limitations in handling certain characters.

One approach to properly encode HTTP URLs is to utilize the java.net.URI class. According to the URL documentation, "URI does perform escaping of its component fields in certain circumstances."

To encode an HTTP URL using URI, create a URI object with multiple arguments:

URI uri = new URI(
    "http", 
    "search.barnesandnoble.com", 
    "/booksearch/first book.pdf",
    null);

The resulting URI will have illegal characters escaped, providing the expected behavior.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/first%20book.pdf

Note that URI only escapes illegal characters. For non-ASCII characters, the toASCIIString method can be used to convert the URI to a string containing only US-ASCII characters:

String request = uri.toASCIIString();

For URLs with queries, use the 5-parameter constructor of URI to specify both the URL path and query string:

URI uri = new URI(
        "http", 
        "www.google.com", 
        "/ig/api",
        "weather=São Paulo",
        null);

This approach offers a more robust and comprehensive solution for encoding HTTP URLs in Java.

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