PHP "&curren" string turns into weird symbol

Question

The following PHP code:

<?php
$s = "page.com?a=1&current";
echo $s;

outputs the unexpected:

page.com?a=1¤t

Setting the file encoding to utf-8 didn't work. When I set $s to "page.com?a=1&curre", the output is as expected.

I want to know if this is because in my project I have $url, which needs to be appended with "&currentPage=1".

What is causing this problem?

Answer 1

That's the entity code for the currency symbol being interpreted. If you're building your GET url, you can solve it in various ways:

• Use urlencode() on your query values:

  $s = 'page.com?' . urlencode("a=1&currentPage=2");

• Use the entity for & itself;

  'page.com?a=1&currentPage=2'

• Or use your variable at the beginning so no & is required:

  'page.com?currentPage=2&a=1'