Master URL Decoding in PHP: How rawurldecode() Restores Encoded URLs

In web development we often need to handle URLs, and special characters must be encoded to be transmitted and parsed correctly; sometimes we need to decode those URLs back to their original form. PHP provides a set of functions for URL encoding and decoding, one of which is rawurldecode().

The rawurldecode() function decodes a URL‑encoded string and returns the original URL. 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 that has been encoded with urlencode() is assigned to $url, then rawurldecode() decodes it, and the result is printed with echo.

Running the code produces the output: https://www.example.com/?q=добрый汉字 We can see that the encoded URL string is restored to its original form after decoding with rawurldecode().

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(), helping ensure correct handling of URL parameters in web development.