Why doesn’t this get function receive the variable car?

*quick_searches.php

This code items that similar to a search done on a previous page. Then is supposed to save the specific brand listed to car.

<?php
    include 'header.php';
?>
<h1>Search Page</h1>
<p>Could change to OR for broadness</p>
<div class="article-container">
<?php
    if (isset($_POST['submit-search'])){
        $time = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['time']);
        $brand = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['brand']);
        $cars = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['cars']);
        $location = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['location']);
        $sql = "SELECT * FROM classic_cars WHERE time LIKE'%$time%' AND brand LIKE '%$brand%' AND
             cars LIKE '%$cars%'AND location LIKE '%$location%'";
        $result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
        $queryResult = mysqli_num_rows($result);

        echo "There are ".$queryResult." results!";

        if ($queryResult > 0) {

            while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){
                echo '<a href="test.php?car = '.$row['brand'].'">
                <h3>'.$row['brand'].'</h3></a>
                <p>'.$row['time'].'</p>
                <p>'.$row['brand'].'</p>
                <p>'.$row['cars'].'</p>
                <p>'.$row['location'].'</p>  
                ';
                }
        } else {
            echo "There are no results matching your search!";
        }
    }
?>

</div>

test.php

This section of code is supposed to get car = ‘.$row[‘brand’].’ from quick_searches.php and display it.

<?php
echo $_GET['car'];
?>

Answer

So your URL has spaces around the parameter values – these have been URL Encoded to %20.

If you url_decode() the URL you’ll see:

localhost:8080/classiccars/test.php?car = Ford

If you can update the URL to not have those spaces that would be preferable. Alternatively try requesting $_GET['car '] rather than $_GET['car'] and be sure to trim() your value returned to take the space away from the beginning.

Generally much preferable to not have spaces in a URL if you don’t need them though and have control to change things.