P.105, Encoding And Decoding Strings

[iExchange]

Hello,

 

I'm very happy to know about the urlencode and urldecode functions on p.105, but I got a little bit confused regarding the tip there. It says:

 

"Values sent directly from a form are automatically URL-encoded prior to being sent and decoded upon arrival at the receiving script. Y ou only need the urlencode() function to manually encode data (as in the example)."

 

So, why do I need to manually encode the data while values sent from a form are actually URLencoded automatically?

 

Sorry for this dumb question but I have been thinking about this for half an hour, sorry...

Though, this is the best book for beginning php learners like me.

 

 

[Edward]

PHP cannot encode the problematic values but will encode and decode non-problematic values automatically. And because a space in the middle of a url would cause it not to work.

[Larry]

Thanks for the nice words on the book. Basically, the browser automatically and smartly handles the encoding and decoding of form data. But data in the URL is not automatically handled by the browser, so you have to.