How to set $_GET variable

Question

How do i set the variable that the $_GET function will be able to use, w/o submitting a form with action = GET?

Answer 1

One way to set the $_GET variable is to parse the URL using parse_url() and then parse the $query string using parse_str(), which sets the variables into the $_GET global.

This approach is useful,

• if you want to test GET parameter handling without making actual queries, e.g. for testing the incoming parameters for existence and input filtering and sanitizing of incoming vars.
• and when you don't want to construct the array manually each time, but use the normal URL

---

function setGetRequest($url)
{
    $query = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);
    parse_str($query, $_GET);
}

$url = 'http://www.example.com/test.php?a=10&b=plop';

setGetRequest($url);   

var_dump($_GET);

Result: $_GET contains

array (
  'a' => string '10' (length=2)
  'b' => string 'plop' (length=4)
)