Can I use an at (@) sign in the path part of an url

Question

I know it can't be part of the authority section as usernames with an @ are used there, but can I use it in the path section.

The reason I want to use it is as part of an url for a users resources. eg

www.example.com/[email protected]/someresource

Answer 1

The @ symbol is a reserved character in RFC 3986 so it is not allowed in your URL. It would be converted to %40 when URL encoding is used.

Answer 2

In your case, best practice for RESTful and nice URLS, it should be www.example.com/domain.com/user/someresource