nonURLreserved

The term "nonURLreserved" typically refers to a set of characters or sequences that are not permitted within a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) as a literal part of the path, query, or fragment. These characters are reserved for specific purposes within the URL structure, such as delimiting different components (like the slash "/" separating path segments) or indicating the start of a query string (the question mark "?").

Reserved characters have designated meanings in the syntax of URIs and URLs. If these characters need to be included in a URL for their literal meaning, they must be percent-encoded. Percent-encoding involves replacing the reserved character with a "%" symbol followed by its two-digit hexadecimal representation. For example, a space character, which is reserved, would be encoded as "%20".

Characters that are not reserved and do not have a special meaning are considered unreserved. These include alphanumeric characters and a few punctuation marks like hyphen "-", underscore "_", period ".", and tilde "~". These unreserved characters can be used literally within a URL without the need for encoding. The precise definition of reserved and unreserved characters is specified in relevant internet standards, primarily RFC 3986. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for correctly constructing and parsing URLs to ensure they are interpreted as intended by web servers and browsers.