JQuery: Retrieve data from URL

Question

I am 'sending' some data in a url:

foo.htm?mydata

From searching around I know that I must use something like:

function getParameterByName(name)
{
  name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
  var results = regex.exec(window.location.search);
  if(results == null)
    return "";
  else
    return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
}

But I am a bit perplexed by this. Could someone help me out in deciphering this at all I simply want the end result to be placing mydata in a var, eg:

var newvar = mydata

Thanks heaps in advance!

@Krycke if you actually look at the link you posted, you can tell that the function on the question here is taken from there.. — Andreas Wong
– Andreas Wong, Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 8:02

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:51:05Z

2

The getParameterByName function (I assume you got it from here), is written to retrieve a query string value. This means, you can access data from the URL when it looks like this:

yourdomain.com/index.html?key=value&anotherkey=anothervalue

Now you can do this:

var firstKey = getParameterByName("key");
var secondKey = getParameterByName("anotherkey");

As described in your question, you don't have key/value pairs. If this is the case, and you only need the part after the ?, simply use the following by using the split method:

var newvar = document.URL.split("?")[1];

I do suggest you use the key/value method though, in case you want to pass on more variables in the future.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:51

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 2, 2012 at 8:06

MarcoK

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2 Comments

MeltingDog Over a year ago

ah thanks this seems to be what I need! my url is not correct. I get this error though in my console: Uncaught ReferenceError: getParameterByName is not defined. Do I need a plugin for this?

MarcoK Over a year ago

It looks like you're calling the function before it's created; try placing the function in the code before the part where you're calling it from. There is no need for any plugin: The get getParameterByName is the function that you defined in your original post.

Luceos · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-02 07:55:51Z

1

Maybe this library is interesting if you are in need of a lot of uri parsing:

https://github.com/medialize/URI.js

answered Aug 2, 2012 at 7:55

Luceos

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