Special characters are turned into '?'

[meek]

Hi there.

I have this script that passes a variable to Google in order to perform a search. The content of the variable comes form an input field in a form:

<form name="form" action="<?php echo basename($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]); ?>" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" value=" Search">
<input name="Submit" type="submit" value=" Search ">
</form>

The variables and the code snippet look like this:

$var = @$_GET['q'];
$trimmed = trim($var);

(...)

echo "<p><a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=" . $trimmed . "\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Search for '" . $trimmed . "' on Google\">Click here</a> to search for <b>&quot;" . $trimmed . "&quot;</b> on Google.</p>";

The problem is that if someone types local special chars into the input field - like words containing â, ä, ø, å, æ, etc. - these characters turn out as ? on Google making the search impossible. How can I keep these characters from being turned into question marks?

If you guys want the entire script let me know. Thanks in advance.

[drew010]

use [man]urlencode[/man] before you submit to them and it should replace it with the appropriate encoded characters

[meek]

Okay. I'm not sure how to do it. Could you show me, please?

[drew010]

$encoded = urlencode($str);

[meek]

Alright. Thanks. Where should I put it?

<form name="form" action="<?php echo basename($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]); ?>" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" value=" Search">
<input name="Submit" type="submit" value=" Search ">
</form>
<?php
  // Get the search variable from URL
  $var = @$_GET['q'] ;
  $s = @$_GET['s'] ;
  $trimmed = trim($var); //trim whitespace from the stored variable

  // Number of records to display per page ** EDIT REQUIRED HERE **
  $limit=10;

  // check for an empty string and display a message.
  if ($trimmed == "")
  {
  echo "<p>Please enter a search...</p>";
  exit;
  }

  // check for a search parameter
  if (!isset($var))
  {
  echo "<p>We dont seem to have a search parameter!</p>";
  exit;
  }

  //Connect to db
  include("sql.php");

  // Build SQL query
  $query = "SELECT * FROM tabel WHERE titel LIKE \"%$trimmed%\" ORDER BY titel DESC" OR error("MySQL Query Failed: ".mysql_error());

  $numresults=mysql_query($query);
  $numrows=mysql_num_rows($numresults);

  // If we have no results, offer a google search as an alternative

  if ($numrows == 0)
  {
  //echo "<h4>Results:</h4>";
  echo "<p>Sorry, searching for <b>&quot;" . $trimmed . "&quot;</b> gave zero results.</p>";

  // google
echo "<p><a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=" . $trimmed . "\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Search for '" . $trimmed . "' on Google\">Click here</a> to search for <b>&quot;" . $trimmed . "&quot;</b> on Google.</p>"; 
  }

  // next determine if s has been passed to script, if not use 0
  if (empty($s)) {
  $s=0;
  }

  // get results
  $query .= " limit $s,$limit";
  $result = mysql_query($query) or die("Couldn't execute query");

  // begin to show results set
    if ($numrows > 0) {
    echo "<b>Results:</b><br />";
    $count = 1 + $s ;
}

  // display the results returned
  while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  $title = $row["titel"];
  echo "$count.&nbsp;$title";
  $count++ ;
  }

  $currPage = (($s/$limit) + 1);

  //break before paging
  echo "<br />";

  // next we need to do the links to other results
  if ($s>=1) { // bypass PREV link if s is 0
  $prevs=($s-$limit);
  print "&nbsp;<a href=\"$PHP_SELF?s=$prevs&q=$var\">&lt;&lt;&nbsp;Prev</a>&nbsp;&nbsp&nbsp;";
  }
    if($count>$limit) {
  // calculate number of pages needing links
  $pages=intval($numrows/$limit);

  // $pages now contains int of pages needed unless there is a remainder from division

  if ($numrows%$limit) {
  // has remainder so add one page
  $pages++;
  }

  // check to see if last page
  if (!((($s+$limit)/$limit)==$pages) && $pages!=1) {

  // not last page so give NEXT link
  $news=$s+$limit;

  echo "&nbsp;<a href=\"$PHP_SELF?s=$news&q=$var\">Next&nbsp;&gt;&gt;</a>";
  }

  $a = $s + ($limit) ;
  if ($a > $numrows) { $a = $numrows ; }
  $b = $s + 1 ;
  echo "<p>------------------------------------<br />\n"
  ."Showing $b to $a of $numrows</p>";
}
?>

[drew010]

i think here
echo "<p><a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=" . $trimmed .

[meek]

Like this?

echo "<p><a href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=" . urlencode($trimmed) . "\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Search for '" . $trimmed . "' on Google\">Click here</a> to search for <b>&quot;" . $trimmed . "&quot;</b> on Google.</p>";

It doesn't work.