Basic PHP Programming Question:

Anwser 1:
urlencode() returns the URL encoded version of the given string. URL coding converts special characters into % signs followed by two hex digits. For example: urlencode("10.00%") will return "10%2E00%25". URL encoded strings are safe to be used as part of URLs.
urldecode() returns the URL decoded version of the given string.

Anwser 2:
string urlencode(str) - Returns the URL encoded version of the input string. String values to be used in URL query string need to be URL encoded. In the URL encoded version:

Alphanumeric characters are maintained as is.
Space characters are converted to "+" characters.
Other non-alphanumeric characters are converted "%" followed by two hex digits representing the converted character.

string urldecode(str) - Returns the original string of the input URL encoded string.

For example:

$discount ="10.00%";
$url = "http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=".urlencode($discount);
echo $url;

You will get "http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=10%2E00%25".