php encode full url with spaces in arguments

Question

I have a url that looks like that

http://example.com/index.php?id=111&title=word1 word2 word3

I need to encode the spaces before requesting the url with curl.

But how to urlencode the right parts of the url.

urlencode and rawurlencode encode the slashes of https the question mark etc.

Use parse_url to break the URL into its component parts, and then operate on the query string as required. Use http_build_url to stitch back together. — cmbuckley
– cmbuckley, Commented Mar 29, 2012 at 9:19

F21 · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-29 09:23:10Z

6

You can use parse_url() to split the URL into its respective pieces. Use urlencode() on the query element from the array that parse_url returns, then put it back together using http_build_url.

NOTE: http_build_url requires PECL pecl_http >= 0.21.0

edited Mar 29, 2012 at 9:23

answered Mar 29, 2012 at 9:18

F21

33.6k27 gold badges105 silver badges179 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

cmbuckley Over a year ago

Further use of parse_str and http_build_query are worth mentioning too.

Beeblbrox Over a year ago

The query is already partly encoded, wouldn't encoding it again result in the existing &'s and ='s being mistakenly substituted?

applechief Over a year ago

parse_url will return the query arguments as a string id=111&title=word1 word2 word3 If I urlencode that string i run into the same problem. the & and = will be encoded..

Beeblbrox Over a year ago

If spaces are the only issue (i.e. word1 word2 etc. can't contain any punctuation) surely a simple regex on the whole thing to replace spaces with + would do the job.

Beeblbrox Over a year ago

You're not going to get very far trying to make a bullet proof function to convert unknown query strings that may or may not already be properly/fully encoded. You'll get a best guess function and that's all you'll get.

|

slash197 · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-29 09:16:48Z

0

Replace white spaces with "+".

answered Mar 29, 2012 at 9:16

slash197

9,0246 gold badges44 silver badges71 bronze badges

Comments

boctulus · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-06 22:39:46Z

0

As @F21 said,...

function fixUrlEncoding(string $url){

    $scheme = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_SCHEME);
    $host   = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST);
    $path   = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PATH);
    $query  = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);

    $f = explode('?', $query,2);
    $file  = $f[0];
    $query = $f[1];

    $ini   = $scheme . '://' . $host . $path ;

    // fix encoding
    parse_str($query, $result);
    foreach ($result as $k => $val){
        $result[$k] = urlencode($val);
    }

    $query = $file . '?' . http_build_query($result);

    if (!Strings::startsWith('http', $url)){
        $url = $ini . '?' . $query;
    } else {
        $url = substr($url, strlen($ini)) . '?' . $query;
        $url = $ini . '?' . $query;
    }

    return $url;
}

answered Jul 6, 2021 at 22:39

boctulus

40510 silver badges16 bronze badges

2 Comments

Luke Rehmann Over a year ago

as of PHP 8, Strings::startsWith('http',$url) can be replace with str_starts_with($url,'http') OR substr($url,0,4)=='http' for users with older versions of PHP and no 'Strings'

Luke Rehmann Over a year ago

Also, the second instance of "$url = $ini . '?' . $query;" I think should be removed...

Sergey Kharchishin · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-03 15:39:47Z

0

It's strange that PHP currently doesn't have a function to encode the entire URL, including domain/path/query. My version to encode Full url.

/**
 * To encode full url including domain/path/query
 * https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.parse-url.php
 * https://www.php.net/en/idn_to_ascii
 * https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.urlencode.php
 * 
 * @param string $urlFull
 * @return string
 */
function urlencodeFull(string $urlFull): string
{
    //add scheme if not set
    $urlFull = ((!strstr($urlFull, '://') and strlen($urlFull)) ? 'https://' : '') . $urlFull;
    
    //parse url
    if($url = parse_url($urlFull) and isset($url['host']))
    {    
        //urlencode for url path
        if(isset($url['path']) and strlen($url['path']) > 1)
        {
            $url['pathArray'] = array_filter(array_map(fn($v) => urlencode(urldecode($v)), explode('/', $url['path'])));
        }

        //urlencode for url query
        if(isset($url['query']) and strlen($url['query']) > 1)
        {
            $url['queryArray'] = array_filter(array_map(fn($v) => urlencode(urldecode($v)), explode('&', $url['query'])));
        }

        return $url['scheme'] . '://' . idn_to_ascii($url['host']) .
                (isset($url['port']) ? ':' . $url['port'] : '') . 
                (isset($url['pathArray']) ? '/' . implode('/', $url['pathArray']) . '/' : '') .
                (isset($url['queryArray']) ? '?' . implode('&', $url['queryArray']) : '') .
                (isset($url['fragment']) ? '#' . $url['fragment'] : '');
    }
    else
    {
        return $urlFull;
    }
}

And in result:

echo urlencodeFull('https://täst.de/täst1/täst2?täst3=t r u e');

will be

https://xn--tst-qla.de/t%C3%A4st1/t%C3%A4st2/?t%C3%A4st3%3Dt+r+u+e

edited Nov 3 at 15:39

answered Nov 3 at 15:23

Sergey Kharchishin

4845 silver badges10 bronze badges

2 Comments

A.L Nov 3 at 15:45

else is not necessary this there is an early return in the if block. You can put only return $urlFull; after the if block.

A.L Nov 3 at 15:49

You can use str_contains() instead of strstr(), it's available since PHP 8.0 released in late 2020.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

php encode full url with spaces in arguments

4 Answers 4

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related