How can I add or update a query string parameter?

Question

With javascript how can I add a query string parameter to the url if not present or if it present, update the current value? I am using jquery for my client side development.

Answer 1

Based on @amateur's answer (and now incorporating the fix from @j_walker_dev comment), but taking into account the comment about hash tags in the url I use the following:

function updateQueryStringParameter(uri, key, value) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|#|$)", "i");
  if (uri.match(re)) {
    return uri.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value + '$2');
  } else {
    var hash =  '';
    if( uri.indexOf('#') !== -1 ){
        hash = uri.replace(/.*#/, '#');
        uri = uri.replace(/#.*/, '');
    }
    var separator = uri.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? "&" : "?";    
    return uri + separator + key + "=" + value + hash;
  }
}

Edited to fix [?|&] in regex which should of course be [?&] as pointed out in the comments

Edit: Alternative version to support removing URL params as well. I have used value === undefined as the way to indicate removal. Could use value === false or even a separate input param as wanted.

function updateQueryStringParameter(uri, key, value) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|#|$)", "i");
  if( value === undefined ) {
    if (uri.match(re)) {
        return uri.replace(re, '$1$2');
    } else {
        return uri;
    }
  } else {
    if (uri.match(re)) {
        return uri.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value + '$2');
    } else {
    var hash =  '';
    if( uri.indexOf('#') !== -1 ){
        hash = uri.replace(/.*#/, '#');
        uri = uri.replace(/#.*/, '');
    }
    var separator = uri.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? "&" : "?";    
    return uri + separator + key + "=" + value + hash;
  }
  }  
}

See it in action at https://jsfiddle.net/bp3tmuxh/1/

Answer 2

Here's an alternative method using the inbuilt properties of the anchor HTML element:

• Handles multi-valued parameters.
• No risk of modifying the # fragment, or anything other than the query string itself.
• May be a little easier to read? But it is longer.

    var a = document.createElement('a'),

	getHrefWithUpdatedQueryString = function(param, value) {
	    return updatedQueryString(window.location.href, param, value);
	},

	updatedQueryString = function(url, param, value) {
	    /*
	     A function which modifies the query string 
             by setting one parameter to a single value.

	     Any other instances of parameter will be removed/replaced.
	     */
	    var fragment = encodeURIComponent(param) + 
                           '=' + encodeURIComponent(value);

	    a.href = url;

	    if (a.search.length === 0) {
		a.search = '?' + fragment;
	    } else {
		var didReplace = false,
		    // Remove leading '?'
		    parts = a.search.substring(1)
		// Break into pieces
			.split('&'),

		    reassemble = [],
		    len = parts.length;

		for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
		    
		    var pieces = parts[i].split('=');
		    if (pieces[0] === param) {
			if (!didReplace) {
			    reassemble.push('&' + fragment);
			    didReplace = true;
			}
		    } else {
			reassemble.push(parts[i]);
		    }
		}

		if (!didReplace) {
		    reassemble.push('&' + fragment);
		}

		a.search = reassemble.join('&');
	    }

	    return a.href;
	};

Answer 3

if you want to set multiple parameters at once:

function updateQueryStringParameters(uri, params) {
    for(key in params){
      var value = params[key],
          re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|$)", "i"),
          separator = uri.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? "&" : "?";
      if (uri.match(re)) {
        uri = uri.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value + '$2');
      }
      else {
        uri = uri + separator + key + "=" + value;
      }
    }
    return uri;
}

same function as @amateur's

if jslint gives you an error add this after the for loop

if(params.hasOwnProperty(key))

Answer 4

Here's my approach: The location.params() function (shown below) can be used as a getter or setter. Examples:

Given the URL is http://example.com/?foo=bar&baz#some-hash,

1. location.params() will return an object with all the query parameters: {foo: 'bar', baz: true}.
2. location.params('foo') will return 'bar'.
3. location.params({foo: undefined, hello: 'world', test: true}) will change the URL to http://example.com/?baz&hello=world&test#some-hash.

Here is the params() function, which can optionally be assigned to the window.location object.

location.params = function(params) {
  var obj = {}, i, parts, len, key, value;

  if (typeof params === 'string') {
    value = location.search.match(new RegExp('[?&]' + params + '=?([^&]*)[&#$]?'));
    return value ? value[1] : undefined;
  }

  var _params = location.search.substr(1).split('&');

  for (i = 0, len = _params.length; i < len; i++) {
    parts = _params[i].split('=');
    if (! parts[0]) {continue;}
    obj[parts[0]] = parts[1] || true;
  }

  if (typeof params !== 'object') {return obj;}

  for (key in params) {
    value = params[key];
    if (typeof value === 'undefined') {
      delete obj[key];
    } else {
      obj[key] = value;
    }
  }

  parts = [];
  for (key in obj) {
    parts.push(key + (obj[key] === true ? '' : '=' + obj[key]));
  }

  location.search = parts.join('&');
};

Answer 5

Yeah I had an issue where my querystring would overflow and duplicate, but this was due to my own sluggishness. so I played a bit and worked up some js jquery(actualy sizzle) and C# magick.

So i just realized that after the server has done with the passed values, the values doesn't matter anymore, there is no reuse, if the client wanted to do the same thing evidently it will always be a new request, even if its the same parameters being passed. And thats all clientside, so some caching/cookies etc could be cool in that regards.

JS:

$(document).ready(function () {
            $('#ser').click(function () {
                SerializeIT();
            });
            function SerializeIT() {
                var baseUrl = "";
                baseUrl = getBaseUrlFromBrowserUrl(window.location.toString());
                var myQueryString = "";
                funkyMethodChangingStuff(); //whatever else before serializing and creating the querystring
                myQueryString = $('#fr2').serialize();
                window.location.replace(baseUrl + "?" + myQueryString);
            }
            function getBaseUrlFromBrowserUrl(szurl) {
                return szurl.split("?")[0];
            } 
            function funkyMethodChangingStuff(){
               //do stuff to whatever is in fr2
            }
        });

HTML:

<div id="fr2">
   <input type="text" name="qURL" value="http://somewhere.com" />
   <input type="text" name="qSPart" value="someSearchPattern" />
</div>
<button id="ser">Serialize! and go play with the server.</button>

C#:

    using System.Web;
    using System.Text;
    using System.Collections.Specialized;

    public partial class SomeCoolWebApp : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        string weburl = string.Empty;
        string partName = string.Empty;

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string loadurl = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl;
            string querySZ = null;
            int isQuery = loadurl.IndexOf('?');
            if (isQuery == -1) { 
                //If There Was no Query
            }
            else if (isQuery >= 1) {
                querySZ = (isQuery < loadurl.Length - 1) ? loadurl.Substring(isQuery + 1) : string.Empty;
                string[] getSingleQuery = querySZ.Split('?');
                querySZ = getSingleQuery[0];

                NameValueCollection qs = null;
                qs = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(querySZ);

                weburl = qs["qURL"];
                partName = qs["qSPart"];
                //call some great method thisPageRocks(weburl,partName); or whatever.
          }
      }
  }

Okay criticism is welcome (this was a nightly concoction so feel free to note adjustments). If this helped at all, thumb it up, Happy Coding.

No duplicates, each request as unique as you modified it, and due to how this is structured,easy to add more queries dynamicaly from wthin the dom.

Answer 6

My take from here (compatible with "use strict"; does not really use jQuery):

function decodeURIParams(query) {
  if (query == null)
    query = window.location.search;
  if (query[0] == '?')
    query = query.substring(1);

  var params = query.split('&');
  var result = {};
  for (var i = 0; i < params.length; i++) {
    var param = params[i];
    var pos = param.indexOf('=');
    if (pos >= 0) {
        var key = decodeURIComponent(param.substring(0, pos));
        var val = decodeURIComponent(param.substring(pos + 1));
        result[key] = val;
    } else {
        var key = decodeURIComponent(param);
        result[key] = true;
    }
  }
  return result;
}

function encodeURIParams(params, addQuestionMark) {
  var pairs = [];
  for (var key in params) if (params.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
    var value = params[key];
    if (value != null) /* matches null and undefined */ {
      pairs.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(value))
    }
  }
  if (pairs.length == 0)
    return '';
  return (addQuestionMark ? '?' : '') + pairs.join('&');
}

//// alternative to $.extend if not using jQuery:
// function mergeObjects(destination, source) {
//   for (var key in source) if (source.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
//     destination[key] = source[key];
//   }
//   return destination;
// }

function navigateWithURIParams(newParams) {
  window.location.search = encodeURIParams($.extend(decodeURIParams(), newParams), true);
}

Example usage:

// add/update parameters
navigateWithURIParams({ foo: 'bar', boz: 42 });

// remove parameter
navigateWithURIParams({ foo: null });

// submit the given form by adding/replacing URI parameters (with jQuery)
$('.filter-form').submit(function(e) {
  e.preventDefault();
  navigateWithURIParams(decodeURIParams($(this).serialize()));
});