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[SOLVED] I have an Ampersand riddle - how to pass and use the & in a URL?

benphp

By benphp
in PHP Coding Help

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benphp Regular Member

benphp

Posted
Posted

I've been working on this for a while now and still can't seem to get it to work.

 

I want to pass a phrase in the URL that uses an ampersand:

 

"Black & White"

 

And I want to be able to 1) print it as is, and 2) insert it into a link. I think the problem lies in the spaces around the ampersand. I've tried various methods of replacing it with & and &038; and replacing the spaces with %20 or + but it still causes trouble.

 

Note - this looks simple but it isn't.

 

Here's the test code:

 

<?php
$a = "";
if (isset($_GET['a'])) {
$a = $_GET['a'];
}

print "a=$a";

$alink = str_replace("&", '&', $a);
$alink = str_replace(" ", '+', $a);

print "<p><a href=\"test.php?a=$alink\">Test</a><p>";

print "
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<form action=\"test.php\" method=\"GET\" name=\"myform\">
<input type=\"text\" name=\"a\" value=\"$a\"><br />
<input type=\"Submit\" name=\"btnGo\">
</form>
</html>
";

?>

 

To see what I mean:

1. Enter Black & White into the field.

2. Click Submit.

3. Click the link that was created.

 

You will see that only "Black" was retained in the link, even though the link variable looks like "test.php?a=black+&+white".

 

 

kenrbnsn Regular Member

kenrbnsn

Posted
Posted

Use the function rawurlencode()

 

<?php
$a = "";
if (isset($_GET['a'])) {
$a = $_GET['a'];
}

print "a=$a";


echo  '<p><a href="test.php?a=' . rawurlencode($a) . '">Test</a><p>';

print "
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<form action='test.php' method='GET' name='myform'>
<input type='text' name='a' value='" . rawurlencode($a) . "'><br />
<input type='Submit' name='btnGo'>
</form>
</html>
";

?>

 

Ken

thebadbad Newbie

thebadbad

Posted
Posted

What he said. And to correct your code:

 

<?php
$alink = str_replace(" ", "+", str_replace("&", "&", $a));
?>

 

And when you 'print it as is', remember that the literal ampersand (&) is invalid HTML; use the html entity & (htmlentities() will give you that).

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