Easy PHP question

Im trying to send a variable via GET to a php script like so:

<a href="process.php?id=test & test">Link</a>

Leaving spaces is no problem, but the & symbol (ampersand) cannot be
displayed to the screen. I want it to show "test & test". Instead it
displays just "test" without the rest following it.

Can anyone tell me how to display the whole variable passed to
process.php?

TIA
Rob

On 12 Sep 2003 17:01:24 -0700, gojuka@si.rr.com (Robert) wrote:

>Im trying to send a variable via GET to a php script like so:
>
><a href="process.php?id=test & test">Link</a>
>
>Leaving spaces is no problem, but the & symbol (ampersand) cannot be
>displayed to the screen. I want it to show "test & test". Instead it
>displays just "test" without the rest following it.

In a URL, & is one of the separator characters (; being the other); so you
have urlencode it for it to be part of a value within a URL.

<a href="process.php?id=<?php echo urlencode('test & test')?>">Link</a>

It'll come out as:

<a href="process.php?id=test+%26+test">Link</a>

>Can anyone tell me how to display the whole variable passed to
>process.php?

And then & is special in HTML. You must encode it as &amp; in any output.

echo htmlspecialchars($_GET['id']);

--
Andy Hassall (andy@andyh.co.uk) icq(5747695) (http://www.andyh.co.uk)
Space: disk usage analysis tool (http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space)