Is there a PHP function to convert a query string to an array?

Question

I'm basically looking for the opposite of http_build_query().

I have the following as a string:

foo=bar&bar[var]=foo 

And I want the following (to pass into http_build_query):

array(     'foo' => 'bar',     'bar' => array(          'var' => 'foo',     ) ) 

Answer 1

You want parse_str(). Pass it an array as the 2nd parameter and it will extract variables from the query string you give it into the array:

<?php $str = "first=value&arr[]=foo+bar&arr[]=baz";  parse_str($str, $output);  print_r($output);  /* Array (     [first] => value     [arr] => Array         (             [0] => foo bar             [1] => baz         )  ) */ 

Notice this is the very first related function listed on the http_build_query page.