regex to remove a particular query parameter

Question

We had a version of our website which added a lang query parameter to the end of any URL. It didn't last long as it created lots of duplicate pages... but they still exist in google. I'd like to do a redirect to basically remove ANY of the references.

An example is https://www.example.com/?lang=au

I am using a redirection plugin (wordpress) which supports regex, however I am having trouble with the formatting. It's removing the "Lang" part, but nothing else.

/(.*)\/?lang=*

That should then redirect to

https://www.example.com/$1

So any form eg: example.com/sub-page/something-else/?lang=au would redirect back to example.com/sub-page/something-else/ (minus the lang param).

Thanks for any help!

try /(.*)\/?lang=.*

Jay jargot
– Jay jargot

2019-03-13 09:25:41 +00:00
Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 9:25 — Jay jargot
– Jay jargot, Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 9:25
Try with following /(.*)\/?lang=([^]*)

IMParasharG
– IMParasharG

2019-03-13 09:31:00 +00:00
Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 9:31 — IMParasharG
– IMParasharG, Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 9:31

ALFA · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-13 10:10:51Z

1

This is the regex you should use:

\/(.*)\/\?lang=.*

Basically you were using =* at the end of yours which means: Matches between zero and unlimited times the = character and that wasn't be able to match anything after =.

Using lang=.* means:

lang= matches the characters lang= literally (case sensitive)
.* matches any character (except for line terminators)

edited Mar 13, 2019 at 10:10

answered Mar 13, 2019 at 9:43

ALFA

1,7441 gold badge12 silver badges19 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Matt Facer Over a year ago

Works nicely thank you - it does seem to leave a ? behind though - is there any way to remove that too? Might get complicated though if there are other parameters? (though I don't think they are used on the site so it might not be an issue)

ALFA Over a year ago

Edited the regex on my answer, give it a try! :) I replaced ? with \? since it needs an escape to match the character literally.

ALFA Over a year ago

Let me know if you need any help on handling other parameters, we will try to find a solution

Matt Facer Over a year ago

Worked fantastically. thank you for the answer - and also the explanation :)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

regex to remove a particular query parameter

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related