What potential issues can arise when using the & symbol in URLs in PHP?

When using the & symbol in URLs in PHP, it can be misinterpreted as the start of a new parameter, leading to unexpected behavior or errors. To avoid this issue, it is recommended to properly encode the & symbol in URLs using urlencode() function.

$url = "https://example.com/page.php?param1=value1&param2=value2";
$encoded_url = urlencode($url);

echo $encoded_url;