I was building a simple web based calculator which takes equations from a HTML

Question

Asked: May 17, 20262026-05-17T02:24:39+00:00 2026-05-17T02:24:39+00:00

I was building a simple web based calculator which takes equations from a HTML form, evaluates it on the server using PHP and sends the result back.

I am using Mootools to send the data via the req.send AJAX operation.

But, each time I have a ‘+’ in an equation, it is not seen on the POST data the server gets.

Any ideas why this is happening and how I can work around it?

eg:

10 + 12 in HTML form is seen as 10 12 in the $_POST data.

The Mootools send command I am using is something like this with

<textarea name="equationTextArea">10+12</textarea>

req.send("eqn="+$('equationTextArea').value);

Upon submit, I see $_REQUEST['eqn'] as 10 12.

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-05-17T02:24:40+00:00

Editorial Team

Try using the function encodeURIComponent over your text value. It, well.. uri encodes your text.

The Archive Base Latest Questions