decodeURIComponent()

The decodeURIComponent() function decodes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) component previously created by encodeURIComponent or by a similar routine.

Syntax

decodeURIComponent(encodedURI)

Parameters

encodedURI

An encoded component of a Uniform Resource Identifier.

Return value

A new string representing the decoded version of the given encoded Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) component.

Exceptions

Throws an URIError ("malformed URI sequence") exception when used wrongly.

Description

Replaces each escape sequence in the encoded URI component with the character that it represents.

Examples

Decoding a Cyrillic URL component

decodeURIComponent('JavaScript_%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BB%D1%8B');
// "JavaScript_шеллы"

Catching errors

try {
  var a = decodeURIComponent('%E0%A4%A');
} catch(e) {
  console.error(e);
}

// URIError: malformed URI sequence

Decoding query parameters from a URL

decodeURIComponent cannot be used directly to parse query parameters from a URL. It needs a bit of preparation. 

function decodeQueryParam(p) {
  return decodeURIComponent(p.replace(/\+/g, ' '));
}

decodeQueryParam('search+query%20%28correct%29');
// 'search query (correct)'

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification
# sec-decodeuricomponent-encodeduricomponent

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also