applies a raw url encode on the string

urlencode.bash

# applies a raw url encode on the string
# usage: urlencode "foo foo bar"      <-- outputs: foo%3dfoo%20bar
# @param string stringtoencode

urlencode() {
  local string="${1}"; local strlen=${#string}; local encoded=""
  for (( pos=0 ; pos<strlen ; pos++ )); do
     c=${string:$pos:1}
     case "$c" in
        [-_.~a-zA-Z0-9] ) o="${c}" ;;
        * )               printf -v o '%%%02x' "'$c"
     esac
     encoded+="${o}"
  done
  echo "${encoded}"    # You can either set a return variable (FASTER) 
}