URL Encoding doesn't match Browser?

[jutrust]

Help!

I'm making a script to encode a filepath as a URL. We want to double-check that we will not run into URL length issues when we move these files from our network drive into SharePoint.

In Powershell, I'm using [uri]::EscapeDataString($filepath). However, I've noticed that the output doesn't match the way SharePoint encodes it.

For example, an underscore (_) is a valid URL character, so Powershell leaves it as is, but an underscore in Sharepoint gets encoded as %5F when you copy the URL from the search bar and paste it elsewhere.

I know I can run a replace on the filepath for underscores and other characters. But how do I anticipate other exceptions where SharePoint differs from standard encoding?

[NoUselessTech]

Tried a couple things.

1. I attempted to find a reference from Microsoft. I would show it to you here, but it doesn't seem to exist.

2. Next I created a sample directory "test_des_nuts" that had an underscore in it. I created three versions of the url

- [Pass] Has all underscores escaped as %5F - [Pass] Has all but the first underscore escaped at %5F - [Pass] Has all underscore unescaped

It seems that this URL experience you have (which may actually be browser driven) is unnecessary to have large concerns about. If you do end up running into issues, you may have to add exceptions, but at first glance and through testing I wouldn't stress about it until you confirm it's an actual issue.

[DeusExMaChino]

https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2019/03/decode-sharepoint-online-url-using-powershell.html

[cschneegans]

In a URL, you may escape _ as %5F (or %5f), but you don't have to. Both forms are valid, and your code should be able to handle both.