Encoding issue, coverting & to & for html using php

Answer 1

use html_entity_decode():

$newUrl = html_entity_decode('<a href="index.php?q=event&amp;id=56&amp;date=128">');
echo $newUrl; // prints <a href="index.php?q=event&id=56&date=128">

Answer 2

Use htmlspecialchars_decode. Example straight from the PHP documentation page:

$str = '<p>this -&gt; &quot;</p>';
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($str); // <p>this -> "</p>