How to URL Encode Strings in Rust
Alex Garella
9th October 2023
URL encoding is essential for ensuring that strings are web-safe by replacing unsafe ASCII characters with a % followed by two hexadecimal digits. In Rust, this process is easy thanks to the url crate.
This blog post walks you through how to URL encode strings in Rust using the url crate.
The url crate is a comprehensive library in Rust for URL parsing and handling, including URL encoding and decoding.
1. Installing the url Crate:
[dependencies]
url = "2"
Insert the above snippet into your Cargo.toml file to include the url crate in your project.
2. Basic URL Encoding:
extern crate url;
use url::form_urlencoded;
fn main() {
let input = "The Best Rust Job, Ever!";
let encoded: String = form_urlencoded::byte_serialize(input.as_bytes()).collect();
println!("{}", encoded); // Output: The+Best+Rust+Job%2C+Ever%21
}
With just a few lines of code, transform your string into a URL-encoded format using form_urlencoded::byte_serialize.
Conclusion:
URL encoding is a critical step in preparing strings for the web, and Rust's url crate makes this task straightforward.