Parse and stringify URL query strings

Install

$ npm install query-string

Usage

const queryString = require('query-string');

console.log(location.search);
//=> '?foo=bar'

const parsed = queryString.parse(location.search);
console.log(parsed);
//=> {foo: 'bar'}

console.log(location.hash);
//=> '#token=bada55cafe'

const parsedHash = queryString.parse(location.hash);
console.log(parsedHash);
//=> {token: 'bada55cafe'}

parsed.foo = 'unicorn';
parsed.ilike = 'pizza';

const stringified = queryString.stringify(parsed);
//=> 'foo=unicorn&ilike=pizza'

location.search = stringified;
// note that `location.search` automatically prepends a question mark
console.log(location.search);
//=> '?foo=unicorn&ilike=pizza'

API

.parse(string, options?)

Parse a query string into an object. Leading ? or # are ignored, so you can pass location.search or location.hash directly.

The returned object is created with Object.create(null) and thus does not have a prototype.

options

Type: object

decode

Type: boolean
Default: true

Decode the keys and values. URL components are decoded with decode-uri-component.

arrayFormat

Type: string
Default: 'none'

• 'bracket': Parse arrays with bracket representation:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3', {arrayFormat: 'bracket'});
//=> {foo: ['1', '2', '3']}

• 'index': Parse arrays with index representation:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo[0]=1&foo[1]=2&foo[3]=3', {arrayFormat: 'index'});
//=> {foo: ['1', '2', '3']}

• 'comma': Parse arrays with elements separated by comma:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo=1,2,3', {arrayFormat: 'comma'});
//=> {foo: ['1', '2', '3']}

• 'none': Parse arrays with elements using duplicate keys:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo=1&foo=2&foo=3');
//=> {foo: ['1', '2', '3']}

sort

Type: Function | boolean
Default: true

Supports both Function as a custom sorting function or false to disable sorting.

parseNumbers

Type: boolean
Default: false

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo=1', {parseNumbers: true});
//=> {foo: 1}

Parse the value as a number type instead of string type if it's a number.

parseBooleans

Type: boolean
Default: false

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('foo=true', {parseBooleans: true});
//=> {foo: true}

Parse the value as a boolean type instead of string type if it's a boolean.

.stringify(object, options?)

Stringify an object into a query string and sorting the keys.

options

Type: object

strict

Type: boolean
Default: true

Strictly encode URI components with strict-uri-encode. It uses encodeURIComponent if set to false. You probably don't care about this option.

encode

Type: boolean
Default: true

URL encode the keys and values.

arrayFormat

Type: string
Default: 'none'

• 'bracket': Serialize arrays using bracket representation:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, 2, 3]}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket'});
//=> 'foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3'

• 'index': Serialize arrays using index representation:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, 2, 3]}, {arrayFormat: 'index'});
//=> 'foo[0]=1&foo[1]=2&foo[2]=3'

• 'comma': Serialize arrays by separating elements with comma:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, 2, 3]}, {arrayFormat: 'comma'});
//=> 'foo=1,2,3'

• 'none': Serialize arrays by using duplicate keys:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, 2, 3]});
//=> 'foo=1&foo=2&foo=3'

sort

Type: Function | boolean

Supports both Function as a custom sorting function or false to disable sorting.

const queryString = require('query-string');

const order = ['c', 'a', 'b'];

queryString.stringify({a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}, {
	sort: (a, b) => order.indexOf(a) - order.indexOf(b)
});
//=> 'c=3&a=1&b=2'

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({b: 1, c: 2, a: 3}, {sort: false});
//=> 'b=1&c=2&a=3'

If omitted, keys are sorted using Array#sort(), which means, converting them to strings and comparing strings in Unicode code point order.

skipNull

Skip keys with null as the value.

Note that keys with undefined as the value are always skipped.

Type: boolean
Default: false

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({a: 1, b: undefined, c: null, d: 4}, {
	skipNull: true
});
//=> 'a=1&d=4'

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({a: undefined, b: null}, {
	skipNull: true
});
//=> ''

.extract(string)

Extract a query string from a URL that can be passed into .parse().

Note: This behaviour can be changed with the skipNull option.

.parseUrl(string, options?)

Extract the URL and the query string as an object.

The options are the same as for .parse().

Returns an object with a url and query property.

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parseUrl('https://foo.bar?foo=bar');
//=> {url: 'https://foo.bar', query: {foo: 'bar'}}

Nesting

This module intentionally doesn't support nesting as it's not spec'd and varies between implementations, which causes a lot of edge cases.

You're much better off just converting the object to a JSON string:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({
	foo: 'bar',
	nested: JSON.stringify({
		unicorn: 'cake'
	})
});
//=> 'foo=bar&nested=%7B%22unicorn%22%3A%22cake%22%7D'

However, there is support for multiple instances of the same key:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.parse('likes=cake&name=bob&likes=icecream');
//=> {likes: ['cake', 'icecream'], name: 'bob'}

queryString.stringify({color: ['taupe', 'chartreuse'], id: '515'});
//=> 'color=taupe&color=chartreuse&id=515'

Falsy values

Sometimes you want to unset a key, or maybe just make it present without assigning a value to it. Here is how falsy values are stringified:

const queryString = require('query-string');

queryString.stringify({foo: false});
//=> 'foo=false'

queryString.stringify({foo: null});
//=> 'foo'

queryString.stringify({foo: undefined});
//=> ''

Note

Thanks to Sindresorhus (https://github.com/sindresorhus/query-string) for the repo