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

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()));
});

Answer 2

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 3

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 4

I wrote the following function which accomplishes what I want to achieve:

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

Answer 5

Code that appends a list of parameters to an existing url using ES6 and jQuery:

class UrlBuilder {
    static appendParametersToUrl(baseUrl, listOfParams) {

        if (jQuery.isEmptyObject(listOfParams)) {
            return baseUrl;
        }

        const newParams = jQuery.param(listOfParams);

        let partsWithHash = baseUrl.split('#');
        let partsWithParams = partsWithHash[0].split('?');

        let previousParams = '?' + ((partsWithParams.length === 2) ? partsWithParams[1] + '&' : '');
        let previousHash = (partsWithHash.length === 2) ? '#' + partsWithHash[1] : '';

        return partsWithParams[0] + previousParams + newParams + previousHash;
    }
}

Where listOfParams is like

const listOfParams = {
    'name_1': 'value_1',
    'name_2': 'value_2',
    'name_N': 'value_N',
};

Example of Usage:

    UrlBuilder.appendParametersToUrl(urlBase, listOfParams);

Fast tests:

    url = 'http://hello.world';
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, null));
    // Output:  http://hello.world

    url = 'http://hello.world#h1';
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, null));
    // Output:  http://hello.world#h1

    url = 'http://hello.world';
    params = {'p1': 'v1', 'p2': 'v2'};
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, params));
    // Output: http://hello.world?p1=v1&p2=v2

    url = 'http://hello.world?p0=v0';
    params = {'p1': 'v1', 'p2': 'v2'};
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, params));
    // Output: http://hello.world?p0=v0&p1=v1&p2=v2

    url = 'http://hello.world#h1';
    params = {'p1': 'v1', 'p2': 'v2'};
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, params));
   // Output: http://hello.world?p1=v1&p2=v2#h1

    url = 'http://hello.world?p0=v0#h1';
    params = {'p1': 'v1', 'p2': 'v2'};
    console.log('=> ', UrlParameters.appendParametersToUrl(url, params));
    // Output: http://hello.world?p0=v0&p1=v1&p2=v2#h1

Answer 6

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.