sprintf (PHP) return unwanted character (×) [closed]

I tried the sprintf function in php, but the results were not as expected, add an undesirable character:

https://localhost/item?item_id=abcd&redirect=https://www.google.com/×tamp=1616847526

unwanted is ×

the results I expected:

https://localhost/item?item_id=abcd&redirect=https://www.google.com/&timestamp=1616847657

This is my code.

public function generateUrl()
{
    $url = sprintf(
        '%s%s?item_id=%s&redirect=%s&timestamp=%s',
        'https://localhost',
        '/item',
        'abcd',
        'https://www.google.com/',
        $this->timestamp,
    );
    return $url;
}

If I replace the timestamp string with something else the result will be fine. What’s wrong with timestamp? how to solve it?

thanks.

Answer

Nothing is wrong with sprintf, &times is the HTML entity for the multiplication sign x.

If you really need to display the generated URL as you’re doing now you can either use return htmlentities($url) instead of returning the $url directly, or by changing the sprintf call to :

$url = sprintf(
        '%s%s?item_id=%s&redirect=%s&timestamp=%s',
        'https://localhost',
        '/item',
        'abcd',
        'https://www.google.com/',
        $this->timestamp,
    );