spaces vs   in form fields

I have a function which takes an integer (the id field for a record) and returns the corresponding full name of the person whose id matches the integer. The function constructs the full name by querying a table for the row which matches the id and then concatenating firstname, middlename, and lastname with a " " (space) between each. The name value is called $name. Once $name is gotten, it may appear under 2 conditions: as an uneditable displayed value, or as an editable value appearing on a form in an input text box. Whenever I simply display the value, it appears correctly, e.g., "John Paul Smith". However, when I display the value in an input text box on a form, only "John" appears. The odd thing is that when I view source, the full name appears in the HTML; it just doesn't render that way in IE/Opera. If I concatenate   instead of " ", the full name appears correctly in the form field. That's fine but I have an inverse function which takes the full name and returns the id. This inverse function works when I use " " to concatenate names but it doesn't work when I use  ! Ugh! What's up with that? Please REMOVE -NOSPAM from my email address when replying to me. Thanks.