html query string, get style request

Question

In a php file I typically generate links like this:

<a href="admin.php?t=email&id=3">Edit Primary Email</a>

When I look at this in FireFox's "View Source" window, I notice it highlights it in red, and says "& did not start a character reference", which is true, but is this valid for a query string? It still works (and gets rid of the 'error') if I change it to &amp; but I'm curious now about the official way it should be (which I think is the first).

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

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Firefox and you are both right.

A query string indeed uses & to separate parameters - but the HTML document requires ampersands to be encoded &.

See Do I really need to encode '&' as '&'? for more background.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Jan 07 '13 at 11:34

Pekka

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '13 at 11:45

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but is this valid for a query string?

For a query string by itself? No.

For a query string expressed in HTML? Yes.

This is the latter.

answered Jan 07 '13 at 11:45

Quentin

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html query string, get style request

2 Answers2