Passing values with special characters

[fugazzi007]

I'm trying to pass values with special characters through a url, and then read the value which corresponds to a directory in Linux.

By special characters I mean spaces, apostrophes, ampersand and the like.

So, I'm doing something like this.

// my folder structure is
// index
// ->folder 1
// ->folder's


// read index to get folder names
$mydir = dir($directory);
....

// pass the folder name as a group name
echo <a href=\"images.php?page=1&group=$group\">

// So far, the special characters still exist ie:
echo $group[1] // output's "folder's"

The reading page grabs the group and tries to read the folder it represents in Linux

$group = $HTTP_GET_VARS['group'];
$mydir = dir($group);

// At this point, the script breaks and it says

Warning: dir(/public_html/index/folder's/): failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /public_html/images.php on line 53

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /public_html/images.php on line 54

[wilsonodk]

To make sure a string is ready to be used in a URL use urlencode.

// read index to get folder names
$mydir = dir($directory);
...

// pass the folder name as a group name
echo "<a href=\"images.php?page=1&group=". urlencode($group) ."\">";

// So far, the special characters still exist i.e.:
echo $group[1]; // output is "folder's"

[fugazzi007]

You rock. That fixed the el problemo. Thanks!