PHP: sending URL with space

Question

$my_venue has data with space. For example= "nana nono". when I hoover to the link it gets cut off by the space. it works ok if there is no space.

<tr onmouseover="mouse_event(this, 'hlt');" onmouseout="mouse_event(this, '');">
    <?php
    $my_venue= $row['name'];

    echo "<td><a href= http://x.x.x.x:xx/JUNK/search_results.php?user-val=&venue-val=$my_venue&region-val=&lhversion-val=&releaseversion-val=&testtype-val=&api-val=&rate-val=&journaldate-val=&comments-val=&date-val=&record=%25>{$row['name']} </a></td>";
    echo "<td>{$row['region']} </td>";

Oh BTW, I need the space because I need to pass this info to the DB and in the DB the data does have the space

Try removing the spaces here {$row['name']} </a> and ['region']} </td>, see what that does. — Funk Forty Niner
– Funk Forty Niner, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 16:14
@Fred - Avoiding all characters that need encoding is a really convolute approach... — Álvaro González
– Álvaro González, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 16:15

ThiefMaster · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 16:13:23Z

2

You need to rawurlencode the values and quote the attribute. Especially the latter is something you should ALWAYS do. Browsers may be lenient with lack of encoding but a space in an unquoted argument will end it no matter what.

echo '<td><a href="http://x.x.x.x:xx/JUNK/search_results.php?user-val=&venue-val='.rawurlencode($my_venue).'&region-val=&lhversion-val=&releaseversion-val=&testtype-val=&api-val=&rate-val=&journaldate-val=&comments-val=&date-val=&record=%25">'.htmlspecialchars($row['name']).'</a></td>';

Oh, and in case mouse_event() adds a CSS class on hover: You can use the :hover CSS pseudo-class and do not need any JavaScript for this. Unless you need to support IE6 of course, but if that's the case your problem lies somewhere else anyway. :)

answered Apr 16, 2013 at 16:13

ThiefMaster

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8 Comments

ThiefMaster Over a year ago

No! Why would he ever need that? The PHP interpreter will do that when parsing the query string. Just like you never need to un-escape data you escaped to avoid SQL injection.

S.Visser Over a year ago

TS: Oh BTW, I need the space because I need to pass this info to the DB and in the DB the data does have the space

ThiefMaster Over a year ago

He does not need the space in the HTML. When he receives the variable he will have the space again.

John Ryann Over a year ago

&venue-val='.rawurlencode($my_venue).'&region-val= doesn't work. still cut off

ThiefMaster Over a year ago

No! I'm talking about the href attribute in HTML. Simply copy&paste the line from my answer.. it should work.

|

S.Visser · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 16:13:28Z

0

$my_venue = str_replace(' ', '%20', $row['name'])

answered Apr 16, 2013 at 16:13

S.Visser

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4 Comments

ThiefMaster Over a year ago

That won't fix any other characters that need special handling.

S.Visser Over a year ago

urlencode in php wil change it in a +. Where other languages change it in %20

Álvaro González Over a year ago

@S.Visser - And rawurlencode() will change it to %20. You choose.

S.Visser Over a year ago

@ÁlvaroG.Vicario thanks, did not know that. That should be an more clearer solution for the encode problem.

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