Converts special characters in a URL into a format that can be safely transmitted over the internet. It replaces unsafe characters with % followed by their hexadecimal ASCII value (e.g., space becomes %20). This ensures URLs remain valid and properly interpreted by web servers.

Reverses URL encoding by converting encoded characters back into their original form. It interprets % followed by two hexadecimal digits as the corresponding ASCII character. This is essential for correctly processing user inputs and query parameters in web applications.