Converting % encoded characters to "normal" values

Question

I am reading text files (RDF) using the NxParser library.

I am getting lots of 'percent encoded' characters. My question is two fold:

Should I save the words with the encoding and 'decode' them when I want to display them, or should I decode them and then store them (I am using MySQL to store data (if that makes any difference))
How do I decode the reserved characters, I've been trying to find a library that can take some input and then print out a 'nice' version of the same word

I have tried replacing some of the characters with their 'normal' equivalent like so someString.replaceAll("%28","(").replaceAll("%29","). This works fine, but of course it's time consuming to write and perhaps slow to run as well (if lots of replaceAll() are called).

Dave G · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-27 13:00:29Z

3

I think you want to use the java.net.URLDecoder to decode the % encoded elements. The complement to this of course is java.net.URLEncoder which encodes special characters to % elements.

answered Jun 27, 2011 at 13:00

Dave G

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aioobe · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-27 13:05:48Z

1

Should I save the words with the encoding and 'decode' them when I want to display them [...]?

I would save them "unencoded" and encode them when you want to display them. (Different (future?) display mechanisms may require different encodings!)

How do I decode the reserved characters, I've been trying to find a library that can take some input and then print out a 'nice' version of the same word

You should use URLDecoder for this purpose.

Example:

System.out.println(URLDecoder.decode("Hello %28 world", "UTF-8"));

Output:

Hello ( world

edited Jun 27, 2011 at 13:05

answered Jun 27, 2011 at 12:59

aioobe

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Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-27 13:06:00Z

1

You have a "URL encoded" string. Try this:

import java.net.URLDecoder;

String someString = "%28test%29";
String decoded = URLDecoder.decode(url, "UTF-8");
System.out.println(decoded); // "(test,"

answered Jun 27, 2011 at 13:06

Bohemian♦

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wjans · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-27 13:10:39Z

1

It would be best to save the decoded values.
Since your values are stored in a database there is no need to keep them encoded. It would be clearer to have the actual decoded values instead of the less readable encoded versions. Depending on the requirement, you can encode these values again before using them somewhere.
Use java.net.URLDecoder to decode these values

edited Jun 27, 2011 at 13:10

answered Jun 27, 2011 at 13:04

wjans

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2 Comments

Ankur Over a year ago

"It would be best to save the decoded values" ... I was wondering if you have any particular reason.

Ankur Over a year ago

Thanks, that's what I've gone with as it suits me better for now.

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