%E2%80%99 is the URL-encoded right single quotation mark (’).
In a URL, %E2%80%99 stands for the right single quotation mark (’) (3 UTF-8 bytes). Here is when to encode it, what it does in each part of a URL, and what every major language outputs.
Quick facts
| Character | ’ |
|---|---|
| Name | Right single quotation mark (’) |
| Unicode | U+2019 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 80 99 (3 bytes) |
| Percent-encoded | %E2%80%99 |
| Lowercase form | %e2%80%99 — identical meaning |
| Double-encoded | %25E2%2580%2599 |
| HTML form encoding | %E2%80%99 |
| RFC 3986 class | Not allowed in URLs |
| HTML entity | ’ |
What it means in a URL
The curly apostrophe (U+2019) is three bytes in UTF-8: %E2%80%99. Word processors and phones insert it automatically in place of '. Decoded with the wrong charset it shows up as ’.
RFC 3986 class: Not allowed in URLs. It is outside the characters RFC 3986 permits, so it must always be percent-encoded.
When to encode it
| Where it appears | What to do |
|---|---|
| Path segment | Encode |
| Query value | Encode |
| Fragment | Encode |
| Form body | Encode |
The mistake to watch for
Seeing ’ in decoded text: the bytes are UTF-8 but were read as Windows-1252. Decode as UTF-8.
What each language produces
Every function in this table encodes it. Output for the single character, UTF-8 input, tested against the real runtimes (see the encoding comparator for your own strings).
| Function | Output | |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript encodeURIComponent(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| JavaScript encodeURI(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| JavaScript URLSearchParams | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Python urllib.parse.quote(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Python quote(s, safe="") | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Python urllib.parse.quote_plus(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| PHP rawurlencode($s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| PHP urlencode($s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Java URLEncoder.encode(s, UTF_8) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Go url.QueryEscape(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Go url.PathEscape(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Ruby URI.encode_www_form_component(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| Ruby ERB::Util.url_encode(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
| C# / .NET Uri.EscapeDataString(s) | %E2%80%99 | encoded |
Decoding it
decodeURIComponent('%E2%80%99') returns the right single quotation mark (’). Python: urllib.parse.unquote('%E2%80%99'); PHP: rawurldecode('%E2%80%99'). Paste any string into the URL decoder to decode it in your browser.
← %C2%A0 Non-breaking space · Full URL encoding table · %C3%A9 Latin small letter e with acute (é) →
Common questions.
%E2%80%99 is the percent-encoded form of the right single quotation mark (’) — UTF-8 bytes E2 80 99, each written as % plus two hex digits. Decoding the URL turns it back into the character.
Yes. Hex digits in percent-encoding are case-insensitive, so %e2%80%99 and %E2%80%99 mean the same thing. RFC 3986 recommends uppercase, and mixing cases can make caches and analytics count one URL as two.
Use your language’s encoder on the value: encodeURIComponent in JavaScript gives %E2%80%99, Python’s quote(s, safe="") gives %E2%80%99, PHP’s rawurlencode gives %E2%80%99.
More from the toolkit.
About this page. Written and maintained by Sri Murugan Systems, the developer of urlencodedecode.com. Character classes follow RFC 3986 §2; language outputs were generated by running each function in its real runtime.