How to escape hash character in URL

Question

How can I escape the # hash sign (sometimes known as number sign or pound sign) sent in the query string of a URL?

score 389 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 01 '22 at 21:38

389

Percent encoding. Replace the hash with %23.

edited Sep 01 '22 at 21:38

Delgan

answered Feb 15 '11 at 17:48

Useful if you want to share a url which contains '#' to twitter – Raynal Gobel Apr 05 '18 at 02:13
5

This doesn't work on Chrome 74. Furthermore, `encodeURI('#');` is returning `#` and not the percent encoded character – Christian Vincenzo Traina May 20 '19 at 12:10
28

`#` is a valid URI character, but it starts the [hash fragment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragment_identifier), so you need to encode it in the query string. Compare `encodeURIComponent('#')`. What do you see in Chrome 74? – Robert Tupelo-Schneck May 21 '19 at 14:48
You must also encode a `#` anywhere in a `data:` URL, otherwise it will be treated as a fragment identifier. – Denis Howe Dec 12 '22 at 19:20

1 Answers1