PHP FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS Filter

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Definition and Usage

The FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS filter HTML-escapes special characters.

This filter is used to escape "<>& and characters with ASCII value below 32

  • Name: "special_chars"
  • ID-number: 515

Possible flags:

  • FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_LOW - Strip characters with ASCII value below 32
  • FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_HIGH - Strip characters with ASCII value above 32
  • FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH - Encode characters with ASCII value above 32

Example

<?php
$url="Is Peter <smart> & funny?";

var_dump(filter_var($url,FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS));
?>

The browser output of the code above will be:

string(37) "Is Peter <smart> & funny?"

If you select "View source" in the browser window, you will see the following HTML:

string(37) "Is Peter &lt;smart&gt; &amp; funny?"
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