Why does PHP's urlencode use different URL encoding?

Question

The URL encoding of η is %CE%B7. But in PHP I get some strange symbols when I write echo urldecode("%ce%b7");

Instead, if I write echo urlencode("η"); then I get %26%23951%3B. Why can't I use %CE%B7?

Solution

The Problem is that we use typo3. It some how does not use unicode for internal processing. As soon as we set $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['BE']['forceCharset'] = 'utf-8'; in typo3 the output of echo urldecode("%ce%b7"); was correct.

For why echo urlencode("η"); gives me %26%23951%3B see the answers of Joni.

Joni · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-16 14:41:15Z

7

urldecode("%ce%b7") produces η encoded in UTF-8. If you are viewing the output with some other encoding you may see something else.

On the other hand, when you decode %26%23951%3B it's true that you don't obtain η; you obtain η which is a HTML entity code for η. To decode entity codes use html_entity_decode:

echo html_entity_decode('&#951;', false, 'UTF-8'); // prints η, encoded in UTF-8

edited Oct 16, 2012 at 14:41

answered Oct 16, 2012 at 14:33

Joni

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4 Comments

Raoul Over a year ago

Unfortunately, echo html_entity_decode('η', false, 'UTF-8'); does not print η. I have already header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8'); included. And the browser pretends to show it in unicode. Actually, echo urldecode("%26%23951%3B"); prints η.

Joni Over a year ago

Actually, echo urldecode("%26%23951%3B") prints η. If you happen to be viewing the result in a web browser, the browser shows this sequence of multiple characters as η. As to why the browser refuses to show a correctly encoded UTF-8 character despite the Content-Type header, it's hard to tell without seeing the page.

Raoul Over a year ago

ok, now I see my problem. Thanks for pointing that out. But I still don't understand why echo urldecode("%ce%b7"); is not displayed correctly.

Joni Over a year ago

It's hard to say without seeing the page. Maybe there's some non-UTF-8 text that makes the browser think the page is not encoded in UTF-8?

Baba · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-16 14:50:18Z

2

You can try the following

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
echo urldecode("%ce%b7"); // output : η

See Live Demo

edited Oct 16, 2012 at 14:50

answered Oct 16, 2012 at 14:28

Baba

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