URLDecoder.decode question

[vasah20]

How come, given these two URLS:
1)

http://localhost:8100/servlet/cctse...+WHERE+System_Project_Manager+LIKE+'%lopez%'+

2)

http://localhost:8100/servlet/cctservlets.PMT?st=1&len=20&print=true&wh=+WHERE+PMT_Number+=+222314+

The second one works correctly, but the first one keeps giving me a null error.

The error comes when I try to do the URLDecode...

Here's the relevant code:

  public void doGet(HttpServletRequest rq, HttpServletResponse rs) 
    throws ServletException, IOException {
    out = rs.getWriter();
    rs.setContentType("text/html");
    HttpSession sess = rq.getSession();

    //see if we should page, or not
    String st = (rq.getParameter("st") == null)?"1":rq.getParameter("st");
    String len = (rq.getParameter("len") == null)?"20":rq.getParameter("len");
    String sortby = (rq.getParameter("sort") != null)?rq.getParameter("sort"):"PMT_Number";
    String id = rq.getParameter("id"), 
      cmd = rq.getParameter("cmd"),
      type = rq.getParameter("type");
    String wh = rq.getParameter("wh");

    if(wh != null)
      urlWh = java.net.URLDecoder.decode(wh);

    boolean print = (rq.getParameter("print") != null)?true:false;
    boolean auth = false;

    if(sess.getAttribute("login.superuser") != null) 
      auth = ((String)sess.getAttribute("login.superuser")).equalsIgnoreCase("true"); 

    if(auth && id != null) {
      showEditUI(id,cmd);
    } else {
      if(cmd != null) {
        if(cmd.equalsIgnoreCase("advsearch")) showAdvSearch();
      } else if (urlWh == null)
        dispPMTS(Integer.parseInt(st),Integer.parseInt(len),sortby, auth, print);
      else 
        dispPMTS(Integer.parseInt(st),Integer.parseInt(len),sortby, auth, print, urlWh);
    } //end i

And, here's the error:

500 Internal Server Error
/servlet/cctservlets.PMT:

null
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
	at java.net.URLDecoder.decode(URLDecoder.java:55)
	at cctservlets.PMT.doGet(PMT.java:36)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:865)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunSE.service(../servlet/JRunSE.java:1013)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunSE.runServlet(../servlet/JRunSE.java:925)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunNamedDispatcher.forward(../servlet/JRunNamedDispatcher.java:34)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.Invoker.service(../servlet/Invoker.java:84)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunSE.service(../servlet/JRunSE.java:1013)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunSE.runServlet(../servlet/JRunSE.java:925)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunRequestDispatcher.forward(../servlet/JRunRequestDispatcher.java:88)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JRunSE.service(../servlet/JRunSE.java:1131)
	at allaire.jrun.servlet.JvmContext.dispatch(../servlet/JvmContext.java:330)
	at allaire.jrun.http.WebEndpoint.run(../http/WebEndpoint.java:107)
	at allaire.jrun.ThreadPool.run(../ThreadPool.java:272)
	at allaire.jrun.WorkerThread.run(../WorkerThread.java:75)

TIA - leo

------------
Leo Mendoza
lmendoza-at-garbersoft-dot-net