Using PHP Replace SPACES in URLS with %20

Question

I'm looking to replace all instances of spaces in urls with %20. How would I do that with regex?

Thank you!

is there any specific reason why it has to be done with regex? if its a URL you could use php's urldecode method.. — optimusprime619
– optimusprime619, Commented Feb 11, 2012 at 13:26
You should better describe your problem. See parse_url to only apply functions on the parts you want to or (if possible) build a valid URL from the beginning. — hakre
– hakre, Commented Feb 11, 2012 at 13:42

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 19:42:58Z

108

No need for a regex here, if you just want to replace a piece of string by another: using str_replace() should be more than enough :

$new = str_replace(' ', '%20', $your_string);

But, if you want a bit more than that, and you probably do, if you are working with URLs, you should take a look at the [**`urlencode()`**][2] function.

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 19:42

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 11, 2012 at 13:25

Pascal MARTIN

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4 Comments

Bugfixer Over a year ago

How to Replace # with / in codeignitor using routing.

Świeżu Over a year ago

I think this solution: stackoverflow.com/a/9240567/4027811 (actually below) is better, because change all critical signs for url, not only space.

João Over a year ago

Why is this replace even ":" and "/" from url? I'm having issues when trying to encode a URL to validate via filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL), because it only validates if the URL starts with "http".

dbDev Over a year ago

This a terrible answer, str_replace comes with a lot of overhead. OP was looking to replace spaces in a URL, rawurlencode is the correct answer.

Tuan Duong · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05 18:36:05Z

45

I think you must use rawurlencode() instead urlencode() for your purpose.

sample

$image = 'some images.jpg';
$url   = 'http://example.com/'

With urlencode($str) will result

echo $url.urlencode($image); //http://example.com/some+images.jpg

its not change to %20 at all

but with rawurlencode($image) will produce

echo $url.rawurlencode(basename($image)); //http://example.com/some%20images.jpg

edited Sep 5, 2016 at 18:36

Tuan Duong

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answered Oct 9, 2013 at 5:35

drosanda

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4 Comments

Jake Over a year ago

This is usually the best answer to this question. Thanks!

adrianTNT Over a year ago

For me, these outputs like this: http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fsome%20images.jpg , my server has some problems or your answer is inaccurate maybe ?! Thanks.

quantme Over a year ago

Best answer than the accepted. Saved my day and lote of code.

Sami Over a year ago

I have the same problem ad @adrianTNT, I really don't get it !

Madara's Ghost · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-11 13:24:49Z

41

Use urlencode() rather than trying to implement your own. Be lazy.

answered Feb 11, 2012 at 13:24

Madara's Ghost

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5 Comments

Vyktor Over a year ago

He was, he asked instead of googling .)

Madara's Ghost Over a year ago

Not lazy enough apparently :)

David Over a year ago

The only problem with this method is it turns all slashes and ampersands into entities also. My issue is only with spaces. Yours, Lazy.

Jake Over a year ago

This isn't the best answer to the question even for lazy: rawurlencode()

boop Over a year ago

Well it replaces a space with + - just not working.

Vyktor · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-11 13:40:08Z

You've got several options how to do this, either:

urlencode() or rawurlencode() - functions designed to encode URLs for http protocol
str_replace() - "heavy machinery" string replace
strtr() - would have better performance than str_replace() when replacing multiple characters
preg_replace() use regular expressions (perl compatible)

`strtr()`

Assuming that you want to replace "\t" and " " with "%20":

$replace_pairs = array(
  "\t" => '%20',
  " " => '%20',
);
return strtr( $text, $replace_pairs)

`preg_replace()`

You've got few options here, either replacing just space ~ ~, again replacing space and tab ~[ \t]~ or all kinds of spaces ~\s~:

return preg_replace( '~\s~', '%20', $text);

Or when you need to replace string like this "\t \t \t \t" with just one %20:

return preg_replace( '~\s+~', '%20', $text);

_{I assumed that you really want to use manual string replacement and handle more types of whitespaces such as non breakable space ( )}

Jonatas Walker · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-23 14:57:17Z

5

    public static function normalizeUrl(string $url) {
        $parts = parse_url($url);
        return $parts['scheme'] .
            '://' .
            $parts['host'] .
            implode('/', array_map('rawurlencode', explode('/', $parts['path'])));

    }

answered Aug 23, 2019 at 14:57

Jonatas Walker

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Comments

alex347 · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-11 14:08:41Z

2

$result = preg_replace('/ /', '%20', 'your string here');

you may also consider using

$result = urlencode($yourstring)

to escape other special characters as well

answered Feb 11, 2012 at 14:08

alex347

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