what is the difference between $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and $_GET['q']?

Question

what is the difference between $_SERVER[\'REQUEST_URI\'] and $_GET[\'q\'] (which is used in Drupal)?

Answer 1

Given this example url:

http://www.example.com/some-dir/yourpage.php?q=bogus&n=10

$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] will give you:

/some-dir/yourpage.php?q=bogus&n=10

Whereas $_GET['q'] will give you:

bogus

In other words, $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] will hold the full request path including the querystring. And $_GET['q'] will give you the value of parameter q in the querystring.