URL encoding is a way of converting characters that are not allowed in a URL (the address of a website or web page) into a special code. This is necessary because some characters, like spaces and certain symbols, have a special meaning in a URL and cannot be used as is.
For example, a space would be encoded as "%20" in a URL. This allows the computer to understand what characters are in the address, even if they are not allowed in the URL itself.
URL encoding is reversible, meaning that the encoded characters can be converted back to their original form.
The process of converting encoded characters back to their original form is called URL decoding. It is a simple process that replaces the encoded characters with their original counterparts. For example, the encoded space character "%20" would be converted back to a regular space character.
Most web browsers and servers have built-in functionality to handle URL encoding and decoding automatically, so it is typically not something that needs to be done manually.