Sending variables in URLs in PHP with echo

Question

I can't really find good guidelines through Google searches of the proper way to escape variables in URLs. Basically I am printing out a bunch of results from a MySQL query in a table, and I want one of the entries in each row to be a link to that result's page. I think this is easy, that I'm just missing a apostrophe or backslash somewhere, but I can't figure it out. Here's the line that's causing the error:

echo "<a href = \"movies.php/?movie_id='$row['movie_id']'\"> Who Owns It? </a> ";

and this is the error I'm getting:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING

How do I fix this error?

In addition, what are some general guidelines for working with echo and variables in URLs?

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I tested all of the answers below and they all work (for those viewing this in the future). It seems to be mostly a matter of preference/readability. — alexpelan
– alexpelan, Commented Jun 1, 2010 at 18:21

The Real Diel · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-01 18:12:28Z

2

echo "<a href = \"movies.php/?movie_id='$row['movie_id']'\"> Who Owns It? </a> ";

There are two things here that should be changed. For one thing there shouldn't be a / after movies.php. The second is that there aren't any apostrophies around url variables. It should be movie_id=$row['movie_id']. Whenever I use a php variable I usually concatonate it instead of embed it in the quotations. So in the end I'd do something like this:

echo "<a href=\"movies.php?movie_id=" . $row['movie_id'] . "\"> Who Owns It? </a>";

answered Jun 1, 2010 at 18:12

The Real Diel

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Gumbo · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-01 18:08:22Z

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The $row['movie_id'] inside the double quoted string is not allowed (especially the single quotes). Either write it without ' or use the curly braces syntax:

echo "<a href = \"movies.php/?movie_id='$row[movie_id]'\"> Who Owns It? </a> ";
echo "<a href = \"movies.php/?movie_id='{$row['movie_id']}'\"> Who Owns It? </a> ";

See variable parsing for further information.

answered Jun 1, 2010 at 18:08

Gumbo

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mattbasta · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-01 18:11:06Z

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This is a better way:

$movie_id = urlencode($row["movie_id"]);
echo '<a href="movies.php/?movie_id=', $movie_id, '"> Who Owns It? </a> ';

Good luck!

answered Jun 1, 2010 at 18:11

mattbasta

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Jayrox · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-01 18:22:45Z

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This is a better(er) way:

$movie_id = urlencode($row["movie_id"]);
echo "<a href=\"movies.php?movie_id={$movie_id}\"> Who Owns It? </a> ";

Easier to read. Besides the single and double quote speed thing is not much of an issue any more.

answered Jun 1, 2010 at 18:22

Jayrox

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-17 20:32:33Z

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Echo or URLs have nothing to do with your problem. It's PHP strings syntax.

edited May 17, 2012 at 20:32

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 1, 2010 at 18:08

Your Common Sense

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