Storing URL's in a database.

Does it matter if they're encoded or not?

[HughMungus]

I'd think decoding them if they're encoded would result in less space being used. Or is it generally bad practice to use decoded URL's altogether? What about decoding for the DB and encoding for display/links?

[Salsa]

HughMungus, that's a nice thought, but I think you'll have problems trying to restore an entire url with urlencode:

urlencode(http://somesite.com/directory/file.php?query=encoding needed);

will produce this:

http%3A%2F%2Fsomesite.com%2Fdirectory%2Ffile.php%3Fquery%3Dencoding+needed

...great if you wanted to send the url in a query string, but not for restoring an entire url.