How to convert URL parameters to a JavaScript object?

Question

I have a string like this:

abc=foo&def=%5Basf%5D&xyz=5

How can I convert it into a JavaScript object like this?

{
          


        

Answer 1

This seems to be the best solution as it takes multiple parameters of the same name into consideration.

    function paramsToJSON(str) {
        var pairs = str.split('&');
        var result = {};
        pairs.forEach(function(pair) {
            pair = pair.split('=');
            var name = pair[0]
            var value = pair[1]
            if( name.length )
                if (result[name] !== undefined) {
                    if (!result[name].push) {
                        result[name] = [result[name]];
                    }
                    result[name].push(value || '');
                } else {
                    result[name] = value || '';
                }
        });
        return( result );
    }

something
paramsToJSON("x=1&x=2&x=3&y=blah"); 

console yields => {x: Array[3], y: "blah"} where x is an array as is proper JSON

I later decided to convert it to a jQuery plugin too...

$.fn.serializeURLParams = function() {
    var result = {};

    if( !this.is("a") || this.attr("href").indexOf("?") == -1 ) 
        return( result );

    var pairs = this.attr("href").split("?")[1].split('&');
    pairs.forEach(function(pair) {
        pair = pair.split('=');
        var name = decodeURI(pair[0])
        var value = decodeURI(pair[1])
        if( name.length )
            if (result[name] !== undefined) {
                if (!result[name].push) {
                    result[name] = [result[name]];
                }
                result[name].push(value || '');
            } else {
                result[name] = value || '';
            }
    });
    return( result )
}

something
$("a").serializeURLParams(); 

console yields => {x: Array[3], y: "blah"} where x is an array as is proper JSON

Now, the first will accept the parameters only but the jQuery plugin will take the whole url and return the serialized parameters.