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

I realize this question is old and has been answered to death, but here's my stab at it. I'm trying to reinvent the wheel here because I was using the currently accepted answer and the mishandling of URL fragments recently bit me in a project.

The function is below. It's quite long, but it was made to be as resilient as possible. I would love suggestions for shortening/improving it. I put together a small jsFiddle test suite for it (or other similar functions). If a function can pass every one of the tests there, I say it's probably good to go.

Update: I came across a cool function for using the DOM to parse URLs, so I incorporated that technique here. It makes the function shorter and more reliable. Props to the author of that function.

/**
 * Add or update a query string parameter. If no URI is given, we use the current
 * window.location.href value for the URI.
 * 
 * Based on the DOM URL parser described here:
 * http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/parsing-urls-with-the-dom/
 *
 * @param   (string)    uri     Optional: The URI to add or update a parameter in
 * @param   (string)    key     The key to add or update
 * @param   (string)    value   The new value to set for key
 *
 * Tested on Chrome 34, Firefox 29, IE 7 and 11
 */
function update_query_string( uri, key, value ) {

    // Use window URL if no query string is provided
    if ( ! uri ) { uri = window.location.href; }

    // Create a dummy element to parse the URI with
    var a = document.createElement( 'a' ), 

        // match the key, optional square brackets, an equals sign or end of string, the optional value
        reg_ex = new RegExp( key + '((?:\\[[^\\]]*\\])?)(=|$)(.*)' ),

        // Setup some additional variables
        qs,
        qs_len,
        key_found = false;

    // Use the JS API to parse the URI 
    a.href = uri;

    // If the URI doesn't have a query string, add it and return
    if ( ! a.search ) {

        a.search = '?' + key + '=' + value;

        return a.href;
    }

    // Split the query string by ampersands
    qs = a.search.replace( /^\?/, '' ).split( /&(?:amp;)?/ );
    qs_len = qs.length; 

    // Loop through each query string part
    while ( qs_len > 0 ) {

        qs_len--;

        // Remove empty elements to prevent double ampersands
        if ( ! qs[qs_len] ) { qs.splice(qs_len, 1); continue; }

        // Check if the current part matches our key
        if ( reg_ex.test( qs[qs_len] ) ) {

            // Replace the current value
            qs[qs_len] = qs[qs_len].replace( reg_ex, key + '$1' ) + '=' + value;

            key_found = true;
        }
    }   

    // If we haven't replaced any occurrences above, add the new parameter and value
    if ( ! key_found ) { qs.push( key + '=' + value ); }

    // Set the new query string
    a.search = '?' + qs.join( '&' );

    return a.href;
}

Answer 2

I know this is quite old but i want to fires my working version in here.

function addOrUpdateUrlParam(uri, paramKey, paramVal) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + paramKey + "=[^&#]*", "i");
  if (re.test(uri)) {
    uri = uri.replace(re, '$1' + paramKey + "=" + paramVal);
  } else {
    var separator = /\?/.test(uri) ? "&" : "?";
    uri = uri + separator + paramKey + "=" + paramVal;
  }
  return uri;
}

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
  $('#paramKey,#paramValue').on('change', function() {
    if ($('#paramKey').val() != "" && $('#paramValue').val() != "") {
      $('#uri').val(addOrUpdateUrlParam($('#uri').val(), $('#paramKey').val(), $('#paramValue').val()));
    }
  });
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input style="width:100%" type="text" id="uri" value="http://www.example.com/text.php">
<label style="display:block;">paramKey
  <input type="text" id="paramKey">
</label>
<label style="display:block;">paramValue
  <input type="text" id="paramValue">
</label>

NOTE This is a modified version of @elreimundo

Answer 3

I have expanded the solution and combined it with another that I found to replace/update/remove the querystring parameters based on the users input and taking the urls anchor into consideration.

Not supplying a value will remove the parameter, supplying one will add/update the parameter. If no URL is supplied, it will be grabbed from window.location

function UpdateQueryString(key, value, url) {
    if (!url) url = window.location.href;
    var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|#|$)(.*)", "gi"),
        hash;

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

Update

There was a bug when removing the first parameter in the querystring, I have reworked the regex and test to include a fix.

Second Update

As suggested by @JarónBarends - Tweak value check to check against undefined and null to allow setting 0 values

Third Update

There was a bug where removing a querystring variable directly before a hashtag would lose the hashtag symbol which has been fixed

Fourth Update

Thanks @rooby for pointing out a regex optimization in the first RegExp object. Set initial regex to ([?&]) due to issue with using (\?|&) found by @YonatanKarni

Fifth Update

Removing declaring hash var in if/else statement

Answer 4

Here is a shorter version that takes care of

• query with or without a given parameter
• query with multiple parameter values
• query containing hash

Code:

var setQueryParameter = function(uri, key, value) {
  var re = new RegExp("([?&])("+ key + "=)[^&#]*", "g");
  if (uri.match(re)) 
    return uri.replace(re, '$1$2' + value);

  // need to add parameter to URI
  var paramString = (uri.indexOf('?') < 0 ? "?" : "&") + key + "=" + value;
  var hashIndex = uri.indexOf('#');
  if (hashIndex < 0)
    return uri + paramString;
  else
    return uri.substring(0, hashIndex) + paramString + uri.substring(hashIndex);
}

The regex description can be found here.

NOTE: This solution is based on @amateur answer, but with many improvements.

Answer 5

Java script code to find a specific query string and replace its value *

('input.letter').click(function () {
                //0- prepare values
                var qsTargeted = 'letter=' + this.value; //"letter=A";
                var windowUrl = '';
                var qskey = qsTargeted.split('=')[0];
                var qsvalue = qsTargeted.split('=')[1];
                //1- get row url
                var originalURL = window.location.href;
                //2- get query string part, and url
                if (originalURL.split('?').length > 1) //qs is exists
                {
                    windowUrl = originalURL.split('?')[0];
                    var qs = originalURL.split('?')[1];
                    //3- get list of query strings
                    var qsArray = qs.split('&');
                    var flag = false;
                    //4- try to find query string key
                    for (var i = 0; i < qsArray.length; i++) {
                        if (qsArray[i].split('=').length > 0) {
                            if (qskey == qsArray[i].split('=')[0]) {
                                //exists key
                                qsArray[i] = qskey + '=' + qsvalue;
                                flag = true;
                                break;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    if (!flag)//   //5- if exists modify,else add
                    {
                        qsArray.push(qsTargeted);
                    }
                    var finalQs = qsArray.join('&');
                    //6- prepare final url
                    window.location = windowUrl + '?' + finalQs;
                }
                else {
                    //6- prepare final url
                    //add query string
                    window.location = originalURL + '?' + qsTargeted;
                }
            })
        });