rawurlencode

Description

Returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters except

-_.

have been replaced with a percent (%) sign followed by two hex digits. This is the encoding described in RFC 1738 for protecting literal characters from being interpreted as special URL delimiters, and for protecting URL's from being mangled by transmission media with character conversions (like some email systems). For example, if you want to include a password in an FTP URL:

echo '<a href="ftp://user:', rawurlencode('foo @+%/'),
     '@ftp.my.com/x.txt">';

Or, if you pass information in a PATH_INFO component of the URL:

echo '<a href="http://x.com/department_list_script/',
    rawurlencode('sales and marketing/Miami'), '">';

See also rawurldecode(), urldecode(), urlencode() and RFC 1738