Master PHP rawurldecode: Decode URLs Easily with Practical Examples

In web development we often need to handle URLs, and special characters must be encoded to be transmitted and parsed correctly. In some cases we need to decode a URL, restoring the original string. PHP provides a set of functions for URL encoding and decoding, one of which is rawurldecode().

The rawurldecode() function decodes a URL‑encoded string back to its original form. It is primarily used to decode strings that were encoded with the urlencode() function.

Syntax: string rawurldecode ( string $str ) Here $str represents the URL string to be decoded, and the function returns the decoded string.

Example usage:

<?php
$url = "https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2F%3Fq%3D%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%B9%E6%B1%89%E5%AD%97"; // URL encoded with urlencode()
$decodedUrl = rawurldecode($url);

echo $decodedUrl;
?>

In this example, a URL is first encoded using urlencode() and assigned to $url. The rawurldecode() function then decodes it, and the result is output with echo.

Running the code produces the following output: https://www.example.com/?q=добрый汉字 We can see that the encoded URL string is correctly decoded back to its original form.

Note that rawurldecode() only decodes special characters in the URL; it does not process other characters in URL parameters. To decode an entire URL, use the urldecode() function instead.

In summary, rawurldecode() is a convenient PHP function for decoding URLs that were encoded with urlencode(). It restores the original URL, helping ensure correct transmission and parsing of URL parameters in web development.