PHP decoding a URL

Question

I have a URL that contains a department name that will pull records from the database.

The URL looks like this: submissions.php?department=Settings,%20Security%20&%20Payments which is the equivalent of Settings, Security & Payments

My query needs to pull records from the table where the department is equal to Settings, Security & Payments.

How can convert that GET variable back to what I would expect it to be?

I tried html_entity_decode but it ignores the & and only gave me everything prior to that.

Whats the best way to do that?

Side note, if it was my data I would make it simple and pull it by ID but we dont have a table that has ID's for the departments.

That url's badly constructed anyways. Why encode the spaces and then leave the & alone? Whatever code is generating that should be fixed. — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 15:19
Try encoding the ampersand to %26. PHP may be interpreting %20Payments as another parameter in your querystring since it does follow an ampersand. I bet if your did print_r($_GET) you would see an additional parameter you weren't expecting. — Los Frijoles
– Los Frijoles, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 15:20
@MarcB that is just how the value is stored in the database. I have a filter that allows you to pull records by department and unfortunately that's how some of the departments are formatted. — SBB
– SBB, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 15:21
fact remains, that the url's bad. if you wanted a literal & in the url, then it should be %26. Leaving is as & makes the browser think it's a query argument separator. — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 15:22
Do a urlencode on the string before it is added to the URL. Then do a urldecode when you get it on the other side. This will effectively double encode it (since it is already partially encoded in the database) and double decode it. — Tyler Marien
– Tyler Marien, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 15:45

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 20:29:45Z

2

Try urldecode()

You can see the manual here. https://www.php.net/urldecode

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 20:29

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answered Aug 29, 2014 at 15:18

Prinsig

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1 Comment

SBB Over a year ago

"The superglobals $_GET and $_REQUEST are already decoded." It returned the same thing as entity_decode

TechDude · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-29 15:33:56Z

1

<?php

$string = "submissions.php?department=Settings,%20Security%20&%20Payments";
$decoded = urldecode($string);

echo "Original string: $string\n";
echo "Decoded string: $decoded\n";

?>

http://codepad.org/Bq1Gt30s

answered Aug 29, 2014 at 15:33

TechDude

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Comments

Vlatko · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-29 15:29:44Z

0

Use urldecode($your_URLstring)

answered Aug 29, 2014 at 15:29

Vlatko

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