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

To give an code example for modifying window.location.search as suggested by Gal and tradyblix:

var qs = window.location.search || "?";
var param = key + "=" + value; // remember to URI encode your parameters
if (qs.length > 1) {
    // more than just the question mark, so append with ampersand
    qs = qs + "&";
}
qs = qs + param;
window.location.search = qs;

Answer 2

Based on the answer @ellemayo gave, I came up with the following solution that allows for disabling of the hash tag if desired:

function updateQueryString(key, value, options) {
    if (!options) options = {};

    var url = options.url || location.href;
    var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|#|$)(.*)", "gi"), hash;

    hash = url.split('#');
    url = hash[0];
    if (re.test(url)) {
        if (typeof value !== 'undefined' && value !== null) {
            url = url.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value + '$2$3');
        } else {
            url = url.replace(re, '$1$3').replace(/(&|\?)$/, '');
        }
    } else if (typeof value !== 'undefined' && value !== null) {
        var separator = url.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? '&' : '?';
        url = url + separator + key + '=' + value;
    }

    if ((typeof options.hash === 'undefined' || options.hash) &&
        typeof hash[1] !== 'undefined' && hash[1] !== null)
        url += '#' + hash[1];
    return url;
}

Call it like this:

updateQueryString('foo', 'bar', {
    url: 'http://my.example.com#hash',
    hash: false
});

Results in:

http://my.example.com?foo=bar

Answer 3

A different approach without using regular expressions. Supports 'hash' anchors at the end of the url as well as multiple question mark charcters (?). Should be slightly faster than the regular expression approach.

function setUrlParameter(url, key, value) {
  var parts = url.split("#", 2), anchor = parts.length > 1 ? "#" + parts[1] : '';
  var query = (url = parts[0]).split("?", 2);
  if (query.length === 1) 
    return url + "?" + key + "=" + value + anchor;

  for (var params = query[query.length - 1].split("&"), i = 0; i < params.length; i++)
    if (params[i].toLowerCase().startsWith(key.toLowerCase() + "="))
      return params[i] = key + "=" + value, query[query.length - 1] = params.join("&"), query.join("?") + anchor;

  return url + "&" + key + "=" + value + anchor
}

Answer 4

There are a lot of awkward and unnecessarily complicated answers on this page. The highest rated one, @amateur's, is quite good, although it has a bit of unnecessary fluff in the RegExp. Here is a slightly more optimal solution with cleaner RegExp and a cleaner replace call:

function updateQueryStringParamsNoHash(uri, key, value) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=[^&]*", "i");
  return re.test(uri)
       ? uri.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value)
       : uri + separator + key + "=" + value
  ;
}

As an added bonus, if uri is not a string, you won't get errors for trying to call match or replace on something that may not implement those methods.

And if you want to handle the case of a hash (and you've already done a check for properly formatted HTML), you can leverage the existing function instead of writing a new function containing the same logic:

function updateQueryStringParams(url, key, value) {
    var splitURL = url.split('#');
    var hash = splitURL[1];
    var uri = updateQueryStringParamsNoHash(splitURL[0]);
    return hash == null ? uri : uri + '#' + hash;
}

Or you can make some slight changes to @Adam's otherwise excellent answer:

function updateQueryStringParameter(uri, key, value) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=[^&#]*", "i");
  if (re.test(uri)) {
    return uri.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value);
  } else {
    var matchData = uri.match(/^([^#]*)(#.*)?$/);
    var separator = /\?/.test(uri) ? "&" : "?";    
    return matchData[0] + separator + key + "=" + value + (matchData[1] || '');
  }
}

Answer 5

Here is my library to do that: https://github.com/Mikhus/jsurl

var u = new Url;
u.query.param='value'; // adds or replaces the param
alert(u)

Answer 6

This is my preference, and it covers the cases I can think of. Can anyone think of a way to reduce it to a single replace?

function setParam(uri, key, val) {
    return uri
        .replace(RegExp("([?&]"+key+"(?=[=&#]|$)[^#&]*|(?=#|$))"), "&"+key+"="+encodeURIComponent(val))
        .replace(/^([^?&]+)&/, "$1?");
}