Tag: $_SERVER

Display a Query String Value on a Web Page

It seems simple, almost basic, but many people want to display the contents of a query string on a page for the user or just for troubleshooting purposes. Everyone does it, everyone needs to do it, and there are a few different options I’m going to introduce below. First, our sample URL:

https://phpreferencebook.com/?variable=value&name=Mario%20Lurig&gender=male%21

or

https://phpreferencebook.com/?variable=value&name=Mario Lurig&gender=male!
  1. Display the whole string (everything after the question mark)
  •  echo $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']; ?>
    • variable=value&name=Mario%20Lurig&gender=male
  • Display the whole string decoded (convert %## to original characters)
    •  echo urldecode($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']); ?>
      • variable=value&name=Mario Lurig&gender=male!
  • Show each variable and value as an array (already decoded)
    •  print_r($_GET); ?>
      • Array ( [variable] => value [name] => Mario Lurig [gender] => male!
    •  echo '
      '; print_r($_GET); echo '< /pre>'; ?>
      • Array
(
    [variable] => value
    [name] => Mario Lurig
    [gender] => male!
)

    There are lots of options from there, so don’t let this be the end of your exploration of how to display a query string value on a page. If you have any great tricks, feel free to share them in the comments below!

    $_SERVER[‘QUERY_STRING’] in Global Variables

    (pg. 33)

    The description in the book reads:

    $_SERVER[‘QUERY_STRING’] – The current scripts path

    This description is the same as the entry above, because I made a bad edit (copy/paste for formatting). The correct description would be as follows:

    $_SERVER[‘QUERY_STRING’] – The current query string (without the question mark)

    The example is correct and accurate, and luckily this is painfully obvious thanks to the name of the key QUERY_STRING in the $_SERVER array.