Using PHP rawurldecode() to Decode URL‑Encoded Strings

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

The rawurldecode() function decodes a URL‑encoded string back to the original URL. It is mainly used to decode strings that have been encoded with the urlencode() function.

The syntax of rawurldecode() is:

string rawurldecode ( string $str )

Here $str represents the URL string to be decoded, and the function returns the decoded string.

The following example demonstrates how to use rawurldecode() to decode a URL:

<?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 by urlencode()
$decodedUrl = rawurldecode($url);
echo $decodedUrl;
?>

In this example, a URL is first encoded with urlencode() and assigned to the $url variable. The rawurldecode() function is then used to decode it, and the result is printed with echo .

Running the code produces the following output:

https://www.example.com/?q=добрый汉字

This shows that after decoding the encoded URL string with rawurldecode() , the original URL is obtained.

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 have been encoded with urlencode() , restoring them to their original form and helping ensure correct handling of URL parameters in web development.