Params with null value do not present in result string.
<?php
$arr = array('test' => null, 'test2' => 1);
echo http_build_query($arr);
?>
will produce:
test2=1
(PHP 5, PHP 7)
http_build_query — Generate URL-encoded query string
$query_data
[, string $numeric_prefix
[, string $arg_separator
[, int $enc_type = PHP_QUERY_RFC1738
]]] )Generates a URL-encoded query string from the associative (or indexed) array provided.
query_dataMay be an array or object containing properties.
If query_data is an array, it may be a simple
one-dimensional structure, or an array of arrays (which in
turn may contain other arrays).
If query_data is an object, then only public
properties will be incorporated into the result.
numeric_prefixIf numeric indices are used in the base array and this parameter is provided, it will be prepended to the numeric index for elements in the base array only.
This is meant to allow for legal variable names when the data is decoded by PHP or another CGI application later on.
arg_separatorarg_separator.output is used to separate arguments but may be overridden by specifying this parameter.
enc_type
By default, PHP_QUERY_RFC1738.
If enc_type is
PHP_QUERY_RFC1738, then encoding is performed per
» RFC 1738 and the
application/x-www-form-urlencoded media type, which
implies that spaces are encoded as plus (+) signs.
If enc_type is
PHP_QUERY_RFC3986, then encoding is performed
according to » RFC 3986, and
spaces will be percent encoded (%20).
Returns a URL-encoded string.
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.4.0 |
The enc_type parameter was added.
|
| 5.1.3 | Square brackets are escaped. |
| 5.1.2 |
The arg_separator parameter was added.
|
Example #1 Simple usage of http_build_query()
<?php
$data = array('foo'=>'bar',
'baz'=>'boom',
'cow'=>'milk',
'php'=>'hypertext processor');
echo http_build_query($data) . "\n";
echo http_build_query($data, '', '&');
?>
The above example will output:
foo=bar&baz=boom&cow=milk&php=hypertext+processor foo=bar&baz=boom&cow=milk&php=hypertext+processor
Example #2 http_build_query() with numerically index elements.
<?php
$data = array('foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'boom', 'cow' => 'milk', 'php' =>'hypertext processor');
echo http_build_query($data) . "\n";
echo http_build_query($data, 'myvar_');
?>
The above example will output:
0=foo&1=bar&2=baz&3=boom&cow=milk&php=hypertext+processor myvar_0=foo&myvar_1=bar&myvar_2=baz&myvar_3=boom&cow=milk&php=hypertext+processor
Example #3 http_build_query() with complex arrays
<?php
$data = array('user'=>array('name'=>'Bob Smith',
'age'=>47,
'sex'=>'M',
'dob'=>'5/12/1956'),
'pastimes'=>array('golf', 'opera', 'poker', 'rap'),
'children'=>array('bobby'=>array('age'=>12,
'sex'=>'M'),
'sally'=>array('age'=>8,
'sex'=>'F')),
'CEO');
echo http_build_query($data, 'flags_');
?>
this will output : (word wrapped for readability)
user%5Bname%5D=Bob+Smith&user%5Bage%5D=47&user%5Bsex%5D=M& user%5Bdob%5D=5%2F12%2F1956&pastimes%5B0%5D=golf&pastimes%5B1%5D=opera& pastimes%5B2%5D=poker&pastimes%5B3%5D=rap&children%5Bbobby%5D%5Bage%5D=12& children%5Bbobby%5D%5Bsex%5D=M&children%5Bsally%5D%5Bage%5D=8& children%5Bsally%5D%5Bsex%5D=F&flags_0=CEO
Note:
Only the numerically indexed element in the base array "CEO" received a prefix. The other numeric indices, found under pastimes, do not require a string prefix to be legal variable names.
Example #4 Using http_build_query() with an object
<?php
class parentClass {
public $pub = 'publicParent';
protected $prot = 'protectedParent';
private $priv = 'privateParent';
public $pub_bar = Null;
protected $prot_bar = Null;
private $priv_bar = Null;
public function __construct(){
$this->pub_bar = new childClass();
$this->prot_bar = new childClass();
$this->priv_bar = new childClass();
}
}
class childClass {
public $pub = 'publicChild';
protected $prot = 'protectedChild';
private $priv = 'privateChild';
}
$parent = new parentClass();
echo http_build_query($parent);
?>
The above example will output:
pub=publicParent&pub_bar%5Bpub%5D=publicChild
Params with null value do not present in result string.
<?php
$arr = array('test' => null, 'test2' => 1);
echo http_build_query($arr);
?>
will produce:
test2=1
This function makes like this
files[0]=1&files[1]=2&...
To do it like this:
files[]=1&files[]=2&...
Do this:
$query = http_build_query($query);
$query = preg_replace('/%5B[0-9]+%5D/simU', '%5B%5D', $query);
Passing null to $arg_separator is the same as passing an empty string, which is probably not what you want.
If you need to change the enc_type, use this:
http_build_query($query, null, '&', PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);
Or possibly this:
http_build_query($query, null, ini_get('arg_separator.output'), PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);
But not this:
// BAD CODE!
http_build_query($query, null, null, PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);
Correct implementation of coding the array of params without indexes (valdikks fixed code - didnt work for inner arrays):
<code>
function cr_post($a,$b='',$c=0)
{
if (!is_array($a)) return false;
foreach ((array)$a as $k=>$v)
{
if ($c)
{
if( is_numeric($k) )
$k=$b."[]";
else
$k=$b."[$k]";
}
else
{ if (is_int($k))
$k=$b.$k;
}
if (is_array($v)||is_object($v))
{
$r[]=cr_post($v,$k,1);
continue;
}
$r[]=urlencode($k)."=".urlencode($v);
}
return implode("&",$r);
}
</code>
As noted before, with php5.3 the separator is & on some servers it seems. Normally if posting to another php5.3 machine this will not be a problem.
But if you post to a tomcat java server or something else the & might not be handled properly.
To overcome this specify:
http_build_query($array, '', '&');
and NOT
http_build_query($array); //gives & to some servers
Is it worth noting that if query_data is an associative array and a value is itself an empty array, or an array of nothing but empty array (or arrays containing only empty arrays etc.), the corresponding key will not appear in the resulting query string?
E.g.
$post_data = array('name'=>'miller', 'address'=>array('address_lines'=>array()), 'age'=>23);
echo http_build_query($post_data);
will print
name=miller&age=23
When using the http_build_query function to create a URL query from an array for use in something like curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_url), be careful about the url encoding.
In my case, I simply wanted to pass on the received $_POST data to a CURL's POST data, which requires it to be in the URL format. If something like a space [ ] goes into the http_build_query, it comes out as a +. If you're then sending this off for POST again, you won't get the expected result. This is good for GET but not POST.
Instead you can make your own simple function if you simply want to pass along the data:
<?php
$post_url = '';
foreach ($_POST AS $key=>$value)
$post_url .= $key.'='.$value.'&';
$post_url = rtrim($post_url, '&');
?>
You can then use this to pass along POST data in CURL.
<?php
$ch = curl_init($some_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_url);
curl_exec($ch);
?>
Note that at the final page that processes the POST data, you should be properly filtering/escaping it.
Be careful about Example 1 -- it is exactly how *not* to implement things.
& as a separator is the URL encoding.
& is HTML encoding.
You should HTML encode your URL if embedding it in a web page. This is more involved than just replacing & with &. Doing as this example suggests is a security hole waiting to happen.
Params with false value will be changed to zero in result string.
<?php
$arr = ['foo' => false];
echo http_build_query($arr);
?>
will produce:
foo=0
on my install of PHP 5.3, http_build_query() seems to use & as the default separator. Kind of interesting when combined with stream_context_create() for a POST request, and getting $_POST['amp;fieldName'] on the receiving end.
I noticed that even with the magic quotes disabled, http_build_query() automagically adds slashes to strings.
So, I had to add "stripslashes" to every string variable.
If you need only key+value pairs, you can use this:
<?php
$array = array(
"type" => "welcome",
"message" => "Hello World!"
);
echo urldecode(http_build_query($array, '', ';'));
?>
Result: type=welcome;message=Hello World!
This function is wrong for http!
arrays in http is like this:
files[]=1&files[]=2&...
but function makes like this
files[0]=1&files[1]=2&...
Here is normal function:
<?php
function cr_post($a,$b=\'\',$c=0){
if (!is_array($a)) return false;
foreach ((array)$a as $k=>$v){
if ($c) $k=$b.\"[]\"; elseif (is_int($k)) $k=$b.$k;
if (is_array($v)||is_object($v)) {$r[]=cr_post($v,$k,1);continue;}
$r[]=urlencode($k).\"=\".urlencode($v);}return implode(\"&\",$r);}
?>
instead of some other suggestions that did not work for me, I found that the best way to build POST content (e.g. for stream_context_create) is urldecode(http_build_query($query))
As noted, this function omits keys with null values. This could break some code which treats the key as boolean, and so has no value, or other code expecting the array to be populated regardless of value.
A workaround for this is to replace the null values with an empty string:
$data=array(
'a'=>'apple',
'b'=>2,
'c'=>null,
'd'=>'…',
);
// Compensate for fact that http_build_query omits null values
foreach($data as &$datum) if($datum===null) $datum='';
Losing the null-ness of the original is no real loss if it’s supposed to be a real query string. If the null is important, you could use a dummy value instead.
Mark
Not recommending to eliminate the numeric indices like:
'arg[0]' --> 'arg[]'
The reason is this function will not include null values in the result string:
$data = array(
'arg' => array(
null,
2,
3
)
);
echo http_build_query($data);
The output is something like "arg[1]=2&arg[2]=3";
While this is not documented, this http_build_query can return FALSE on some inputs:
<?php
//gives bool(false)
var_dump(http_build_query('whatever'));
?>