What is the difference between URL parameters and query strings

Question

I don t see much of a difference between the parameters and the query strings  in the URL  So what is the difference and when should one be used over the other

User · Answer

Parameters are key-value pairs that can appear inside URL path, and start with a semicolon character (;).

Query string appears after the path (if any) and starts with a question mark character (?).

Both parameters and query string contain key-value pairs.

In a GET request, parameters appear in the URL itself:

<scheme>://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<path>;<parameters>?<query>#<fragment>

In a POST request, parameters can appear in the URL itself, but also in the datastream (as known as content).

Query string is always a part of the URL.

Parameters can be buried in form-data datastream when using POST method so they may not appear in the URL. Yes a POST request can define parameters as form data and in the URL, and this is not inconsistent because parameters can have several values.

I've found no explaination for this behavior so far. I guess it might be useful sometimes to "unhide" parameters from a POST request, or even let the code handling a GET request share some parts with the code handling a POST. Of course this can work only with server code supporting parameters in a URL.

Until you get better insights, I suggest you to use parameters only in form-data datastream of POST requests.

Sources:

What Every Developer Should Know About URLs

RFC 3986

User · Answer

The query component is indicated by the first   in a URI   Query string  might be a synonym  this term is not used in the URI standard    Some examples for HTTP URIs with query components   http   example com foo bar http   example com foo foo foo bar bar bar http   example com  bar http   example com   bar       1  http   example com  bar1 a amp bar2 b    list of allowed characters in the query component   The  format  of the query component is up to the URI authors  A common convention  but nothing more than a convention  as far as the URI standard is concerned    is to use the query component for key-value pairs  aka  parameters  like in the last example above  bar1 a amp bar2 b   Such parameters could also appear in the other URI components  i e   the path   and the fragment  As far as the URI standard is concerned  it   s up to you which component and which format to use   Example URI with parameters in the path  the query  and the fragment   http   example com foo key1 value1 key2 value2 key3 value3        The URI standard says about the query component             query components are often used to carry identifying information in the form of  key value  pairs            The URI standard says about the path component             the semicolon       and equals       reserved characters are often used to delimit parameters and parameter values applicable to that segment  The comma       reserved character is often used for similar purposes

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