PHP解码URL

I have a URL that contains a department name that will pull records from the database.

The URL looks like this: submissions.php?department=Settings,%20Security%20&%20Payments which is the equivalent of Settings, Security & Payments

My query needs to pull records from the table where the department is equal to Settings, Security & Payments.

How can convert that GET variable back to what I would expect it to be?

I tried html_entity_decode but it ignores the & and only gave me everything prior to that.

Whats the best way to do that?

Side note, if it was my data I would make it simple and pull it by ID but we dont have a table that has ID's for the departments.

<?php

$string = "submissions.php?department=Settings,%20Security%20&%20Payments";
$decoded = urldecode($string);

echo "Original string: $string
";
echo "Decoded string: $decoded
";

?>

http://codepad.org/Bq1Gt30s

Try urldecode()

You can see the manual here. http://uk3.php.net/urldecode

Use urldecode($your_URLstring)