Escaping PHP string

Question

I'm trying to add a php session into the content as shown below, but it's just showing an empty page. I'm sure the escaping is not correct.

echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=$_SESSION['name'];\">";

Here's what I'm trying to achieve.

$_SESSION['name'] = 'somepage.php'

And I want to add the session into the url so it redirects to 'somepage'.

hsz · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:25:02Z

6

The best way to combine html quotes and variables is to do it in following way:

echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=' . $_SESSION['name'] . ';">';

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:25

hsz

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1 Comment

Treffynnon Over a year ago

+1 Suggest also adding in htmlentities() or htmlspecialchars() to stop unexpected values from breaking the HTML output.

Salman Arshad · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-16 12:08:46Z

1

You may want to learn how variables are parsed inside PHP strings:

// do not use single quotes
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=$_SESSION[name]\">";

// curly brackets syntax works too but requires quotes; useful in cases when
// variable name is immediately followed by alpha-numeric/underscore character(s)
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL={$_SESSION['name']}\">";

// curly brackets alternate syntax
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=${_SESSION['name']}\">";

Personally, I like using sprintf():

echo sprintf("<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=%s\">", $_SESSION['name']);

edited Feb 16, 2018 at 12:08

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 14:09

Salman Arshad

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Comments

Laurence Burke · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:23:41Z

0

inside of a double quoted "smart" string you cannot have a referenced array inside only single variables.

Try This:

echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=".$_SESSION['name'].";\">";

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:23

Laurence Burke

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PiTheNumber · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:24:16Z

0

Try this

echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=' . $_SESSION['name'] . ';">';

or use

header("Location: http://www.example.com/" . $_SESSION['name']);

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:24

PiTheNumber

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Hecksa · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:24:35Z

0

echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=".$_SESSION['name'].";\">";

Should work fine.

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:24

Hecksa

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Russell G · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:25:33Z

0

Maybe like this:

echo "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=" . $_SESSION['name'] . ";\">";

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:25

Russell G

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Czechnology · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 13:34:14Z

0

I wonder why noone mentioned (s)printf

printf('<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=%s;">', $_SESSION['name']);

This gets very useful once you need to output many variables in text. See the manual.

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 13:34

Czechnology

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