Using URLEncode to upload data via PHP to mYSQL (no replies)

This time around, I am uploading data from the client Java app via PHP to mySQL server. On the PHP end, I am using a _POST and in Java I am using URLEncoder.encode, like this:

ArrayList<String> urlVar = new ArrayList<>();

urlVar.add("?" + (URLEncoder.encode("coyName","UTF-8")+ "=" + URLEncoder.encode(coyName, "UTF-8")));

I am trying to figure out why the above would work, but this won't work (which is what I have been doing).

urlVar.add((URLEncoder.encode("?coyName","UTF-8")+ "=" + URLEncoder.encode(coyName, "UTF-8")));

Moving the ? out of the encode() makes all the difference !?!