How can I URL encode a string in Excel VBA?

Question

Is there a built-in way to URL encode a string in Excel VBA or do I need to hand roll this functionality?

Answer 1

I had problem with encoding cyrillic letters to URF-8.

I modified one of the above scripts to match cyrillic char map. Implmented is the cyrrilic section of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8 and http://www.utf8-chartable.de/unicode-utf8-table.pl?start=1024

Other sections development is sample and need verification with real data and calculate the char map offsets

Here is the script:

Public Function UTF8Encode( _
   StringToEncode As String, _
   Optional UsePlusRatherThanHexForSpace As Boolean = False _
) As String

  Dim TempAns As String
  Dim TempChr As Long
  Dim CurChr As Long
  Dim Offset As Long
  Dim TempHex As String
  Dim CharToEncode As Long
  Dim TempAnsShort As String

  CurChr = 1

  Do Until CurChr - 1 = Len(StringToEncode)
    CharToEncode = Asc(Mid(StringToEncode, CurChr, 1))
' http://www.utf8-chartable.de/unicode-utf8-table.pl?start=1024
' as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8 specification the engoding is as follows

    Select Case CharToEncode
'   7   U+0000 U+007F 1 0xxxxxxx
      Case 48 To 57, 65 To 90, 97 To 122
        TempAns = TempAns & Mid(StringToEncode, CurChr, 1)
      Case 32
        If UsePlusRatherThanHexForSpace = True Then
          TempAns = TempAns & "+"
        Else
          TempAns = TempAns & "%" & Hex(32)
        End If
      Case 0 To &H7F
            TempAns = TempAns + "%" + Hex(CharToEncode And &H7F)
      Case &H80 To &H7FF
'   11  U+0080 U+07FF 2 110xxxxx 10xxxxxx
' The magic is in offset calculation... there are different offsets between UTF-8 and Windows character maps
' offset 192 = &HC0 = 1100 0000 b  added to start of UTF-8 cyrillic char map at &H410
          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex((CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80), 2)
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H1F) Or &HC0), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

'' debug and development version
''          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
''          TempChr = (CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80
''          TempHex = Hex(TempChr)
''          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & TempHex, 2)
''          TempChr = ((CharToEncode And &H7C0) / &H40) Or &HC0
''          TempChr = ((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H1F) Or &HC0
''          TempHex = Hex(TempChr)
''          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & TempHex, 2) & TempAnsShort
''          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

      Case &H800 To &HFFFF
'   16 U+0800 U+FFFF 3 1110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
' not tested . Doesnot match Case condition... very strange
        MsgBox ("Char to encode  matched U+0800 U+FFFF: " & CharToEncode & " = &H" & Hex(CharToEncode))
''          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex((CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80), 2)
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000) And &HF) Or &HE0), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

      Case &H10000 To &H1FFFFF
'   21 U+10000 U+1FFFFF 4 11110xxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
''        MsgBox ("Char to encode  matched &H10000 &H1FFFFF: " & CharToEncode & " = &H" & Hex(CharToEncode))
' sample offset. tobe verified
          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex((CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80), 2)
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40000) And &H7) Or &HF0), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

      Case &H200000 To &H3FFFFFF
'   26  U+200000 U+3FFFFFF 5 111110xx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
''        MsgBox ("Char to encode  matched U+200000 U+3FFFFFF: " & CharToEncode & " = &H" & Hex(CharToEncode))
' sample offset. tobe verified
          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex((CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80), 2)
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000000) And &H3) Or &HF8), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

      Case &H4000000 To &H7FFFFFFF
'   31  U+4000000 U+7FFFFFFF 6 1111110x 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
''        MsgBox ("Char to encode  matched U+4000000 U+7FFFFFFF: " & CharToEncode & " = &H" & Hex(CharToEncode))
' sample offset. tobe verified
          CharToEncode = CharToEncode - 192 + &H410
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex((CharToEncode And &H3F) Or &H80), 2)
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H1000000) And &H3F) Or &H80), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAnsShort = "%" & Right("0" & Hex(((CharToEncode \ &H40000000) And &H1) Or &HFC), 2) & TempAnsShort
          TempAns = TempAns + TempAnsShort

      Case Else
' somethig else
' to be developped
        MsgBox ("Char to encode not matched: " & CharToEncode & " = &H" & Hex(CharToEncode))

    End Select

    CurChr = CurChr + 1
  Loop

  UTF8Encode = TempAns
End Function

Good luck!