Parse URL in php

Question

In php, if I wanted to parse a URL, such as www.site.com/index.php?foo=bar, I can do with the _POST variable. I can retrieve bar by _POST[\'foo\'].

Answer 1

It's a misconception that requesting a URL like

http://www.example.com/index.php?foo=bar

would give you bar in $_POST['bar']. Url parameters will populate $_GET. Anything that's supposed to show up in $_POST has to be submitted in the Request body. See How are parameters sent in an HTTP POST request? for some details.

With that clarified, empty URL parameters are not a problem at all. A URL like

http://www.example.com/index.php?foo&bar

will populate $_GET['foo'] and $_GET['bar'] with empty values.