Handling apostrophes when generating HTML with PHP

Question

I am generating radio buttons based on an XML config values. Sometimes they have apostrophes in the text. When manipulating this data in PHP, I seem to lose everything after

Answer 1

use htmlspecialchars():

<input type="radio" ... value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($array[0], ENT_QUOTES) ?>" ... />

It's explicitly intended to allow safe insertion of arbitrary text into html without 'breaking' the html. Note the 'ent_quotes' option. By default htmlspecialchars will only handle <>", but since you're using ', you need the option to tell htmlspecialchars to handle those too.

Answer 2

Simplest way would be just to use double quotes like so:

<input type='radio' name='remove[]' value="Government wants to limit employers' communications about unionization">

It's pretty much the reason for them.

Answer 3

You can escape the quotes in the string: value='Government wants to limit employers' communications about unionization' Escaping it will cause this problem to stop.

PHP does give functions for this, in case your information is in a variable. Just use htmlspecialchars

Answer 4

You can use double quotes to surround the text:

<input type='radio' name='remove[]' value="Government wants to limit employers' communications about unionization">

An even better way would be to replace the apostrophes with '.

<input type='radio' name='remove[]' value='Government wants to limit employers&quot; communications about unionization'>

This is a more robust solution in case the text includes double quotes as well. You should replace all 's with 's and "s with "s.

This can be easily done using htmlspecialchars(string $str). http://php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars.php

Answer 5

I usually stick with those 2 easy options, both equally efficient:

1. You can encapsulate one type of quotes in the other type

$var = " here single quotes ' are encapsulated in double quotes";
$var = 'here double quotes " are encapsulated in single quotes';

1. you can escape quotes by using \

$var = "just quote some mathematician: \"quot erat demonstrandum\".";