Display a Query String Value on a Web Page

Mario Lurig — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:15:23 +0000

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:

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

http://www.phpreferencebook.com/?variable=value&name=Mario Lurig&gender=male!

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!

PHP Reference Book Blog » urldecode

Display a Query String Value on a Web Page