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

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript 3rd Edition (ECMA-262)	Standard	Initial definition.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262) The definition of 'decodeURIComponent' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262) The definition of 'decodeURIComponent' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2017 Draft (ECMA-262) The definition of 'decodeURIComponent' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibility

See also

• decodeURI
• encodeURI
• encodeURIComponent