How to Decode the & from a URL so that header() works (urldecode not working)

Question

I have the following URL: $url = 'http://mysite.com/?p=welcome&x=1&y=2';

I need to decode it so that header("Location: $url"); actually works.

However, using urldecode($url) is not working because it's not decoding the & -> & and so the browser is getting redirected to http://mysite.com/?p=welcome&x=1&y=2 which fails.

I need it to decode so that it looks like: http://mysite.com/?p=welcome&x=1&y=2

How do I do that?

In case the above is NOT a typo: it should be `header("Location: $url")` - note the `:`. — Marc B, Jul 30 '12 at 14:35
@Marc B: Thanks, was just a typo here, not in my script. Just fixed it above. — ProgrammerGirl, Jul 30 '12 at 14:44

score 33 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:34

33

Try with htmlspecialchars_decode

echo htmlspecialchars_decode('http://mysite.com/?p=welcome&amp;x=1&amp;y=2');
//"http://mysite.com/?p=welcome&x=1&y=2"

answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:34

Esailija

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What the difference between `htmlspecialchars_decode` you are recommending and the `html_entity_decode` everyone else is recommending? Which one should I use? – ProgrammerGirl Jul 30 '12 at 14:45
1

@Programmer `html_entity_decode` is for heavy weight entity decoding, such as turning `←` into `←`. `htmlspecialchars_decode` is only for unescaping escaped html, it decodes only the characters necessary to escape html. `htmlspecialchars_decode` is semantically more correct one to use here imo. – Esailija Jul 30 '12 at 14:47
Perfect fix. Had an odd header("location:") issue where sometimes I was seeing & being turned into & ... used $ref = htmlspecialchars_decode($ref); to clean the variable and FIXED. thank you! – CA3LE May 07 '19 at 06:20

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:34

6

& isn't URL encoded (aka percent-encoding), but is an HTML entity. URL-encoded it would look like %26.

Use html_entity_decode().

answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:34

CodeCaster

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score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:35

5

& isn't url-encoded. You need use htmlspecialchars_decode() http://php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars-decode.php

answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:35

Matt

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Matteo Tassinari · Answer 4 · 2012-07-30T15:09:44.337

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I'd try this:

$url = html_entity_decode($url);
header("Location: $url");

taken from http://php.net/manual/en/function.html-entity-decode.php

I'd do so 'cause your $url is not url-encoded but html-encoded, with html special characters replaced with the corresponding html entity.

edited Jul 30 '12 at 15:09

answered Jul 30 '12 at 14:35

Matteo Tassinari

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How to Decode the & from a URL so that header() works (urldecode not working)

4 Answers4