Is a trailing ampersand legal in a URL?

Question

A URL like

http://localhost/path?a=b&c=d

is fine - but what is the status of the same URL with a trailing ampersand?

ht         


        

Answer 1

I think there is an unwritten rule that all RFCs must be near impossible to understand. You're not the first person unable to parse the grammar and - in my humble opinion - Spray also failed too.

There is nothing wrong with a trailing ampersand. It is a legal character in the URI used to separate parameters. A trailing ampersand may be pointless, but it isn't invalid. Spray should (again, only in my opinion) be simply ignoring it.