Is there a recommended approach for encoding and decoding URLs in PHP to ensure compatibility and security?

When encoding and decoding URLs in PHP, it is recommended to use the `urlencode()` function to encode URLs and `urldecode()` function to decode them. This ensures compatibility with different browsers and servers. To enhance security, it is important to validate and sanitize user input before encoding it to prevent any malicious code injection.

// Encoding URL
$url = "https://www.example.com/page?param=" . urlencode($user_input);

// Decoding URL
$decoded_param = urldecode($_GET['param']);