How to pass an object in query string in PHP

Question

I see many questions about passing an array as a query string in PHP, and it seems the prevailing way is using brackets as in key[]=foo&key[]=bar.

However I cannot find a straight answer about how to send an object (or a key=>value associative array - same thing) as a query string.

Currently, however I do it is:

STRING

?foo=bar&hello=world

Then on the server side, I would do:

<?php
$array = array();
$array['foo']=$_GET['foo'];
$array['hello']=$_GET['hello'];
?>

Of course when using $_POST, this is very simple with an ajax request. Any object you send automatically serializes and isn't a problem.

Is this the best way to handle it, or is there some other standard for sending an object in a query string using PHP?

@AbraCadaver Thanks, that does seem to work. What about sending a an array as one of the values as in ?object[foo]=1&object[foo]=2. That would be the last clarification needed. Thank you! — Walker Farrow
– Walker Farrow, Commented May 30, 2017 at 17:11

AbraCadaver · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-30 17:30:58Z

1

You can use an associative array in a form and in the query string:

object[foo]=bar&object[hello]=world

To build it URL encoded:

$data['object']['foo'] = 'bar';
$data['object']['hello'] = 'world';
echo http_build_query($data);

Yields:

object%5Bfoo%5D=bar&object%5Bhello%5D=world

You can go many levels and/or use dynamically added elements. In general, in text form, it looks just like a PHP array

object[foo][more][even more][]

Or:

object[foo][][more][even more]

answered May 30, 2017 at 17:14

AbraCadaver

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