What are the best practices for encoding special characters in PHP URLs to ensure proper functionality?

Special characters in URLs can cause issues with proper functionality, so it is important to properly encode them. The best practice for encoding special characters in PHP URLs is to use the urlencode() function. This function will encode special characters in a URL-friendly format, ensuring that the URL works correctly.

$url = "https://example.com/page?name=" . urlencode("John Doe");
echo $url;