Converting a querystring into an associative array

Question

In PHP, I need a function to convert a querystring from an URL, say: http://example.com?key1=value1&key2=value2 into a PHP associative array : array ['key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2'].

I've come up to this piece of code. It works, but I find it a bit lengthy. (And PHP has built-in functions for everything: I'm surprised I haven't found anything out-of-the-box, something like the reverse of http_build_query.)

Can you suggest a better way to do this?

function getUrlParams($url) {
  $querystring = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);
  $a = explode("&", $querystring);
  if (!(count($a) == 1 && $a[0] == "")) {
    foreach ($a as $key => $value) {
      $b = explode("=", $value);
      $a[$b[0]] = $b[1];
      unset ($a[$key]);
    }
    return $a;
  } else {
    return false;
  }
}

Possible duplicate of Parse query string into an array

Simon E.
– Simon E.

2016-10-20 03:19:44 +00:00
Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 3:19 — Simon E.
– Simon E., Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 3:19

472084 · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-29 09:25:15Z

65

You can get just the atributes from a URL using parse_url()

Once you have that you can use parse_str() to convert them to variables, it works with multidimensional arrays too!

$str = "first=value&arr[]=foo+bar&arr[]=baz";

parse_str($str, $output);
echo $output['first'];  // value
echo $output['arr'][0]; // foo bar
echo $output['arr'][1]; // baz

edited Nov 29, 2012 at 9:25

answered Nov 30, 2011 at 10:45

472084

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3 Comments

Nicolas Le Thierry d'Ennequin Over a year ago

parse_str ? Function name not explicit at all, but that's it!

Mark Over a year ago

parse_str is not always the ideal solution because querystring parameters that contain a dot like user.name will be converted to user_name, since PHP doesn't support variable names that include a dot

Akhil F Over a year ago

It just adds the variables to your scope? That seems like an unnecessary security issue

MNR · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-25 08:17:21Z

3

If you mean as what you written then it is very simple and don't need anything else there is a predefined Superglobal variable $_GET in PHP which itself represents all the query string as key, value pairs associative array.

Example:

// current page URI: http://localhost/test.php?key1=value1&key2=value2

echo '<pre>';
print_r($_GET);
echo '</pre>';

Result:

Array(
    [key1] = value1
    [key2] = value2
)

For more information about $_GET PHP superglobal goto: http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.get.php

edited Mar 25, 2016 at 8:17

user6107294

answered Oct 2, 2015 at 11:07

MNR

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Comments

Louis van Tonder · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-29 10:22:26Z

0

$url = 'http://example.com?key1=value1&key2=value2&key3=value3';

preg_match_all('/\w+=.*/',$url,$matches);

parse_str($matches[0][0], $output);

print_r($output);

edited Apr 29, 2015 at 10:22

Louis van Tonder

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answered Apr 29, 2015 at 9:36

user3454065

11 bronze badge

Comments

Botz3000 · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-14 08:45:38Z

-2

foreach ($_GET as $key => $value) $arr["$key"]= $value;

edited Aug 14, 2012 at 8:45

Botz3000

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answered Aug 13, 2012 at 20:29

lup

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2 Comments

Fluffeh Over a year ago

When providing code that solves the problem, it is best to also give at least a short explanation of how it works so that folks reading won't have to mentally parse it line by line to understand the differences.

Dan Lugg Over a year ago

What does this accomplish that $arr = $_GET doesn't?

Yi Jiang · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-30 11:37:48Z

-3

Try using parse_url

edited Nov 30, 2011 at 11:37

Yi Jiang

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answered Nov 30, 2011 at 10:44

k102

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1 Comment

Tim Over a year ago

parse_url isn't making a array from a querystring. It just parses the URL and returns the different parts as strings.

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