Here is my code:
$url = "http://localhost/myweb/qanda/1/";
var_dump(filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));
//=> string(31) "http://localhost/myweb/qanda/1/"
It is known as a valid URL and all fine. But my code doesn't work when there is a Persian character in the URL:
$url = "http://localhost/myweb/qanda/1/س";
var_dump(filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));
//=> bool(false)
Why? And how can I fix it?
Well, basically because the string you've entered isn't a valid URL according to the RFC:
"Only alphanumerics [0-9a-zA-Z], the special characters "$-_.+!*'()," [not including the quotes - ed], and reserved characters used for their reserved purposes may be used unencoded within a URL"
Your client (the browser) will translate your character to %D8%B3
which is valid and send that to the server, but your client will probably still show س
(mine does).
So basically, the correct URL would be validated like so:
$url = "http://localhost/myweb/qanda/1/%D8%B3";
var_dump(filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));
You can safely use urlencode() to translate foreign characters.