javascript escape vs urlencode of non-ascii strings

Question

Context: HTML web page (jade/node.js/javascript)
image url has strings with spaces/non-ascii characters
I need to encode these strings either with escape or urlencode.
as of now I am using escape to encode spaces specifically.

But I am not able justify/understand whether I should use escape to encode strings or should I use encodeurlcomponent. I tried reading some online blogs but not understood yet.

Any pointers to which one should be used under what circumstances.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

7

escape() will not encode: @*/+
encodeURI() will not encode: ~!@#$&*()=:/,;?+'
encodeURIComponent() will not encode: ~!*()'

For more information, have a look at these questions:

Encode URL in JavaScript?

When are you supposed to use escape instead of encodeURI / encodeURIComponent?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

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answered Jun 20 '13 at 01:48

Danny Beckett

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+1, though worth noting that *escape* is not a normative part of ES5, whereas the various *encode/decodeURI* functions are. – RobG Jun 20 '13 at 02:45
@RobG That's the first thing said in the answer on the 2nd link `;)` – Danny Beckett Jun 20 '13 at 02:48

javascript escape vs urlencode of non-ascii strings

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