bash - parse a http query string

Question

I have to to parse a query string in bash; I found many solutions online, but I've a big problem when the the asterisk is a "value" o "key".

1 - Example that works

$ PARAMS="key1=val1&key2=val2&key3=val3&key4=val4"
$ ARRAY=(${PARAMS//[=&]/ })
$ echo ${ARRAY[@]}
key1 val1 key2 val2 key3 val3 key4 val4
$

2 - Example that does not work (key4 is equal to *)

$ PARAMS="key1=val1&key2=val2&key3=val3&key4=*"
$ ARRAY=(${PARAMS//[=&]/ })
$ echo ${ARRAY[@]}
key1 val1 key2 val2 key3 val3 key4 file.txt file2.txt file3.txt ...
$

The problem is that the asterisk (*) represent all files in the working directory.

Is the a way to solve this problem? Thank you

janos · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-04 18:17:21Z

1

The problem is that * is expanded by the shell when it's not quoted, both when you assign to ARRAY and when you echo it.

To make the shell not expand wildcards, you can use set -f. In case of the echo, you can simply double-quote the value:

$ PARAMS="key1=val1&key2=val2&key3=val3&key4=*"
$ set -f  # disable wildcard expansion
$ ARRAY=(${PARAMS//[=&]/ })
$ set +f  # restore wildcard expansion
$ echo "${ARRAY[@]}"
key1 val1 key2 val2 key3 val3 key4 *
$ echo "${#ARRAY[@]}"
8

edited Nov 4, 2017 at 18:17

answered Nov 4, 2017 at 10:44

janos

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2 Comments

vlauciani Over a year ago

yes... but did you try to run echo "${ARRAY[1]}" or echo "${ARRAY[2]}"? I tried, but no output.

janos Over a year ago

@vlauciani ah yes, I just forgot to remove the double-quotes that were left over from my previous version

vlauciani · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-04 12:27:10Z

0

Thanks to @janos approach, I found the solution:

$ PARAMS="key1=val1&key2=val2&key3=val3&key4=*"
$ set -f
$ ARRAY=(${PARAMS//[=&]/ })
$ set +f
$ echo "${ARRAY[1]}"
val1
$ echo "${ARRAY[7]}"
*
$

answered Nov 4, 2017 at 12:27

vlauciani

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