How to Properly Encode Strings for URLs in PHP?

Encoding Strings for URLs in PHP

Query Value Encoding

When constructing a URL with query parameters, such as "search.php?query=your query," it's crucial to properly encode the query value. For this purpose, the recommended functions are:

• urlencode(): Encodes the query value according to the "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" standard, converting spaces to " ".
• urldecode(): Decodes a query value that has been encoded using urlencode().

URI Path Encoding

For encoding URI paths or other parts of a URL that are not query parameters, different functions are appropriate:

• rawurlencode(): Encodes the string using the Percent-Encoding standard, converting spaces to " ".
• rawurldecode(): Decodes a string that has been encoded using rawurlencode().

Constructing Query Strings

To generate a complete query string, the http_build_query() function is recommended. It takes an array of key-value pairs and returns a properly encoded query string.

Difference between urlencode() and rawurlencode()

While both urlencode() and rawurlencode() perform URL encoding, they differ in how they handle certain characters:

• urlencode() encodes spaces as " " according to the "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" standard.
• rawurlencode() encodes spaces as " " according to the Percent-Encoding standard.

Understanding this distinction is critical for encoding strings correctly in different contexts within a URL.

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