http - Can I use an at symbol (@) inside URLs?

Question

Is it safe to use an @ symbol as part of a user? For example, a possible URL would be http://example.com/@dave.

The idea is that, nowadays, users are commonly called "@user", so why not make the user page "@username"?

Answer 1

Percent-encoded …

You can use the @ character in HTTP URI paths if you percent-encode it as %40.

Many browsers would display it still as @, but e.g. when you copy-and-paste the URI into a text document, it will be %40.

… but also directly

Instead of percent-encoding it, you may use @ directly in the HTTP URI path.

See the syntax for the path of an URI. Various unrelated clauses aside, the path may consist of characters in the segment, segment-nz, or segment-nz-nc set. segment and segment-nz consist of characters from the pchar set, which is defined as:

pchar = unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / ":" / "@"

As you can see, the @ is listed explicitly.

The segment-nz-nc set also lists the @ character explicitly:

segment-nz-nc = 1*( unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / "@" )

So, a HTTP URI like this is totally valid:

http://example.com/@dave

Example

Here is an example Wikipedia page:

• link
• copy-and-paste: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22@%22_%28album%29

As you can see, the ", (, and ) characters are percent-encoded, but the @ and the _ is used directly.