Parse and stringify URL query strings

Install

$ npm install query-string-for-all

This is a fork of query-string that has all the original code and ES6 NPM dependencies compiled to ES5 so it works in older browsers like IE 11.

Usage

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

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']}

• 'separator': Parse arrays with elements separated by a custom character:

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

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

• 'bracket-separator': Parse arrays (that are explicitly marked with brackets) with elements separated by a custom character:

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

queryString.parse('foo[]', {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> {foo: []}

queryString.parse('foo[]=', {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> {foo: ['']}

queryString.parse('foo[]=1', {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> {foo: ['1']}

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

queryString.parse('foo[]=1||3|||6', {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> {foo: ['1', '', 3, '', '', '6']}

queryString.parse('foo[]=1|2|3&bar=fluffy&baz[]=4', {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> {foo: ['1', '2', '3'], bar: 'fluffy', baz:['4']}

• 'colon-list-separator': Parse arrays with parameter names that are explicitly marked with :list:

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

queryString.parse('foo:list=one&foo:list=two', {arrayFormat: 'colon-list-separator'});
//=> {foo: ['one', 'two']}

• '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']}

arrayFormatSeparator

Type: string
Default: ','

The character used to separate array elements when using {arrayFormat: 'separator'}.

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'

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, null, '']}, {arrayFormat: 'comma'});
//=> 'foo=1,,'
// Note that typing information for null values is lost
// and `.parse('foo=1,,')` would return `{foo: [1, '', '']}`.

• 'separator': Serialize arrays by separating elements with a custom character:

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

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

• 'bracket-separator': Serialize arrays by explicitly post-fixing array names with brackets and separating elements with a custom character:

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

queryString.stringify({foo: []}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> 'foo[]'

queryString.stringify({foo: ['']}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> 'foo[]='

queryString.stringify({foo: [1]}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> 'foo[]=1'

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

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, '', 3, null, null, 6]}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> 'foo[]=1||3|||6'

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, '', 3, null, null, 6]}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|', skipNull: true});
//=> 'foo[]=1||3|6'

queryString.stringify({foo: [1, 2, 3], bar: 'fluffy', baz: [4]}, {arrayFormat: 'bracket-separator', arrayFormatSeparator: '|'});
//=> 'foo[]=1|2|3&bar=fluffy&baz[]=4'

• 'colon-list-separator': Serialize arrays with parameter names that are explicitly marked with :list:

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

queryString.stringify({foo: ['one', 'two']}, {arrayFormat: 'colon-list-separator'});
//=> 'foo:list=one&foo:list=two'

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

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

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

arrayFormatSeparator

Type: string
Default: ','

The character used to separate array elements when using {arrayFormat: 'separator'}.

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
});
//=> ''

skipEmptyString

Skip keys with an empty string as the value.

Type: boolean
Default: false

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

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

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

queryString.stringify({a: '', b: ''}, {
	skipEmptyString: 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.

Returns an object with a url and query property.

If the parseFragmentIdentifier option is true, the object will also contain a fragmentIdentifier property.

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

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

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

options

Type: object

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

Extra options are as below.

parseFragmentIdentifier

Parse the fragment identifier from the URL.

Type: boolean
Default: false

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

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

.stringifyUrl(object, options?)

Stringify an object into a URL with a query string and sorting the keys. The inverse of .parseUrl()

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

Returns a string with the URL and a query string.

Query items in the query property overrides queries in the url property.

The fragmentIdentifier property overrides the fragment identifier in the url property.

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

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

queryString.stringifyUrl({
	url: 'https://foo.bar',
	query: {
		top: 'foo'
	},
	fragmentIdentifier: 'bar'
});
//=> 'https://foo.bar?top=foo#bar'

object

Type: object

url

Type: string

The URL to stringify.

query

Type: object

Query items to add to the URL.

.pick(url, keys, options?)

.pick(url, filter, options?)

Pick query parameters from a URL.

Returns a string with the new URL.

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

queryString.pick('https://foo.bar?foo=1&bar=2#hello', ['foo']);
//=> 'https://foo.bar?foo=1#hello'

queryString.pick('https://foo.bar?foo=1&bar=2#hello', (name, value) => value === 2, {parseNumbers: true});
//=> 'https://foo.bar?bar=2#hello'

.exclude(url, keys, options?)

.exclude(url, filter, options?)

Exclude query parameters from a URL.

Returns a string with the new URL.

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

queryString.exclude('https://foo.bar?foo=1&bar=2#hello', ['foo']);
//=> 'https://foo.bar?bar=2#hello'

queryString.exclude('https://foo.bar?foo=1&bar=2#hello', (name, value) => value === 2, {parseNumbers: true});
//=> 'https://foo.bar?foo=1#hello'

url

Type: string

The URL containing the query parameters to filter.

keys

Type: string[]

The names of the query parameters to filter based on the function used.

filter

Type: (key, value) => boolean

A filter predicate that will be provided the name of each query parameter and its value. The parseNumbers and parseBooleans options also affect value.

options

Type: object

Parse options and stringify options.

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});
//=> ''

FAQ

Why is it parsing + as a space?

See this answer.