Parsing URI parameter and keyword value pairs

Question

I would like to parse the parameter and keyword values from URI/L\'s in a text file. Parameters without values should also be included. Python is fine but am open to suggestion

Answer 1

You can use a regular expression to extract all the pairs.

>>> url = 'www2.domain.edu/folder/folder/page.php?l=user&x=0&id=1&page=http%3A//domain.com/page.html&unique=123456&refer=http%3A//domain2.net/results.aspx%3Fq%3Dbob+test+1.21+some%26file%3Dname&text='
>>> import re
>>> url = 'www2.domain.edu/folder/folder/page.php?l=user&x=0&id=1&page=http%3A//domain.com/page.html&unique=123456&refer=http%3A//domain2.net/results.aspx%3Fq%3Dbob+test+1.21+some%26file%3Dname&text='
>>> p = re.compile('.*?&(.*?)=(.*?)(?=&|$)')
>>> m = p.findall(url)
>>> m
[('x', '0'), ('id', '1'), ('page', 'http%3A//domain.com/page.html'), ('unique', '123456'), ('refer', 'http%3A//domain2.net/results.aspx%3Fq%3Dbob+test+1.21+some%26file%3Dname'), ('text', '')]

You can even use a dict comprehension to package all the data together.

>>> dic = {k:v for k,v in m}
>>> dic
{'text': '', 'page': 'http%3A//domain.com/page.html', 'x': '0', 'unique': '123456', 'id': '1', 'refer': 'http%3A//domain2.net/results.aspx%3Fq%3Dbob+test+1.21+some%26file%3Dname'}

And then if all you want to do is print them out:

>>> for k,v in dic.iteritems():
    print k,'-->',v

text --> 
page --> http%3A//domain.com/page.html
x --> 0
unique --> 123456
id --> 1
refer --> http%3A//domain2.net/results.aspx%3Fq%3Dbob+test+1.21+some%26file%3Dname