How to avoid replacing square brackets in page url using htaccess?

Question

htaccess

I'm trying to display square brackets in url with this line

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(|.*?&)cake(=.*)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$  /$1?%1food\[\]%2 [R=302,L]

However, if this code is repeated, then the square brackets at the end are replaced by the characters %255b%255d.
Can this be avoided?

Answer 1

Add NE Flag

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(|.*?&)cake(=.*)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$  /$1?%1food[]%2 [R=302,L,NE]