Auto append plus sign to dynamic url GET parameter

passing a name via GET

[abushahin]

Ok so Im passing firstname and surname via url to retrieve related data from the db, the problem is that when it is passed its as white space between the first and the surname. i.e

something.php?n=john smith

Can anyone suggest a way to make this

something.php?n=john+smith

automatically add the plus sign in between.
usually the user clicks the link john smith which generates the GET parameter. any help appreciated.

[IanKelley]

I think I might be missing something, why not just change the links?

<a href="something.php?n=John+Smith">John Smith</a>

[Readie]

The following might work, bear in mind I've typed this OTF so it might have errors in:

$request = $_GET['n'];
$reg = '/([^\s]+) (.*)/is';
while(preg_match($reg, $request, $out)) {
$repl = $out[1] . '+' . $out[2];
$request = str_replace($out[1], $repl, $request);
}

[IanKelley]

I got the impression he didn't want to use an intermediate script. If you did want to use a script in between, preg_match needs more memory and CPU than necessary for a split on spaces.

Instead something like this might make sense:

$name = implode('+',explode(' ',$name));

[rocknbil]

$name=urlencode($name); [php.net]

Should fix spaces, and other things that need encoding for query strings. urldecode() to turn them back (which you shouldn't have to do on receipt of the get . . . )

<?php
header("content-type:text/html\n");
//Example only, uncleansed input
if ($_GET['n']) {
echo "Received: " . $_GET['n'] . "\n";
}
else {
$name="john smith";
echo "<p><a href=\"urlencode.php?n=" . urlencode($name) . "\">" . urlencode($name) . "</a></p>";
}
?>

Though you wouldn't encode the content between the anchors . . . just use $name.

[Readie]

Instead something like this might make sense:

$name = implode('+',explode(' ',$name));

Yea I thought of that... Just quite some time after I'd posted and was already in bed, and I wasn't prepared to get out of bed again :P

[abushahin]

Thanks for the great responses guys. Ive used the url encode although implode and explode method works. Only thing is if you urlencode the actual variable, it also echoes as encoded so although it adds the plus signs in the url it also echoes it as that. So ive encoded the actual variable into another and echoed the original.

$encname = urlencode($name);
<a href="urlencode.php?n=$encname">$name</a>