Big Problem with Ampersand, PLEASE HELP

[timsharpe]

I have a form that asks users to signup and enter their email address. Then if someone wants to search for their profile the search and results is based on the users email address. The problem is that if someone enters their email address that contains a "&" yes it is placed in the database however in the list of profiles I have a link like
view_profile.php?email=rosesb&b and when the search is performed no results are shown and I know it exists in teh database, therefore I know that it is the "&" causing problems. How can I fix it and still let users enter email address with the "&" in them?

Thanks
Tim

[PHPMagician]

I didn't think & was a valid character for email addresses (domain names in general) anyway?

[laserlight]

I dont think ampersands are valid either, but if necessary you could use [man]urlencode/man or [man]rawurlencode/man

[timsharpe]

Well I have signed up with it so what do I do?

[PHPMagician]

Is this your application or someone elses. Cause if it your own application, simply remove the email, and filter out any invalid characters when email address are submitted. If you are trying to use a service of another site maybe try: roseb&b, though I don't think it will work (it all depends on filtering they done when the email address was entered).

[Weedpacket]

& is a valid character in email addresses; so laserlight's urlencode() will be necessary (strictly speaking, urlencode should be used on any text not already encoded before it is put into a URL - just in case).