How to decode special characters in an NSURL in Swift?

Question

I have a string: <api address>/<parameters>?fmt=json
When I create an NSURL object from the string, the URL is: <api address>/<parameters>%3Ffmt=json

When I send the request with this URL (using an NSURLSession), however, it gets denied access, as the API wants the ? and doesn't accept %3F. How do I decode the URL to have the ? return so the API will accept the request?

UPDATE

NSURL construction

let urlRequestString = "<api url>?fmt=json&api_key=" + <key> let apiRequestURL = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: urlRequestString)

@ZoffDino let urlRequestString = "?fmt=json&api_key=" + let apiRequestURL = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: urlRequestString) — Karl Thompson, Oct 20 '15 at 21:59
Are you trying to load a file, or communicate with a web server? — Tom Harrington, Oct 20 '15 at 22:13
Communicate with a web server. The server will be returning a JSON block. — Karl Thompson, Oct 20 '15 at 22:14

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 20 '15 at 22:33

You're using the wrong initializer, which is causing bogus results. NSURL(fileURLWithPath: urlRequestString) is intended for creating file:// URLs. It translates your URL into a format suitable for the filesystem. It's designed for file use only, so you shouldn't use it here.

If you change the initializer to be NSURL(string: urlRequestString) then your URL should be OK.

How to decode special characters in an NSURL in Swift?

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