designoir

/**
 * function parseStr
 * Copyright (C) 2006  Dao Gottwald
 *
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 *
 * Contact information:
 *   Dao Gottwald  <dao at design-noir.de>
 *   Herltestraße 12
 *   D-01307, Germany
 *
 * @version  1.2
 * @url      http://design-noir.de/webdev/JS/parseStr/
 */

function parseStr(s) {
  var rv = {}, decode = window.decodeURIComponent || window.unescape;
  (s == null ? location.search : s).replace(/^[?#]/, "").replace(
    /([^=&]*?)((?:\[\])?)(?:=([^&]*))?(?=&|$)/g,
    function ($, n, arr, v) {
      if (n == "")
        return;
      n = decode(n);
      v = decode(v);
      if (arr) {
        if (typeof rv[n] == "object")
          rv[n].push(v);
        else
          rv[n] = [v];
      } else {
        rv[n] = v;
      }
    });
  return rv;
}

// let's pretend the document's URL is http://example.com/path/file?param1=x&param2=y#a=foo&b=bar

var args = parseStr(location.search);        // {param1:"x", param2:"y"}
args.param1;                                 // "x"
parseStr();                                  // {param1:"x", param2:"y"}  (parseStr parses location.search by default)
parseStr(location.hash);                     // {a:"foo", b:"bar"}
parseStr('foo=1%202&bar[]=x&&baz&bar[]=y');  // {foo:"1 2", bar:["x", "y"], baz:""}