Query string differences

[BrianM]

What are the differences in some symbols contained in a query string, like & and ; .. when should each be used and what for?

[BrianM]

I just found this on another website -

 

The question mark indicates the start of the query string and the ampersand, &, symbol seperates variable=value assignments.

 

... but, what does the ; symbols do and when should it be brought into play?

[.josh]

query as in sql query string or are you talking about what you see in your url bar?

[BrianM]

What you see in the URL.

[Darklink]

After the filename like: http://www.example.com/index.php?act=test&do=something

 

The ? indicates the start of the query and the & is the seperator between each paramater.

 

So the URL above would return the following $_GET array:

 

[act] => test

[do]  => something

 

The use of ; in a URL is not really used as far as I am now unless you are parsing that as one of the parameter values. A common mistake is the use of & in a URL when redirecting via JavaScript. This would accidently represent the URL above like so:

 

http://www.example.com/index.php?act=test&do=something

 

However if you do use & to seperate URL's in HTML (which you should) it would take you to:

 

http://www.example.com/index.php?act=test&do=something

 

[BrianM]

Ah, well thank you for the information.