Parsing string to add to URL-encoded URL

Question

Given the string:

\"Hello there world\"

how can I create a URL-encoded string like this:

\"Hello%20there%20world\"
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Answer 1

Ruby's URI is useful for this. You can build the entire URL programmatically and add the query parameters using that class, and it'll handle the encoding for you:

require 'uri'

uri = URI.parse('http://foo.com')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  's' => "Hello there world"
)
uri.to_s # => "http://foo.com?s=Hello+there+world"

The examples are useful:

URI.encode_www_form([["q", "ruby"], ["lang", "en"]])
#=> "q=ruby&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form("q" => "ruby", "lang" => "en")
#=> "q=ruby&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form("q" => ["ruby", "perl"], "lang" => "en")
#=> "q=ruby&q=perl&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form([["q", "ruby"], ["q", "perl"], ["lang", "en"]])
#=> "q=ruby&q=perl&lang=en"

These links might also be useful:

• When to encode space to plus (+) or %20?
• URL encoding the space character: + or %20?
• 17.13.4 Form content types from the W3's "Forms in HTML documents" recommendations.