How to set $_GET variable

Question

How do i set the variable that the $_GET function will be able to use, w/o submitting a form with action = GET?

Solution 1

You can create a link , having get variable in href.

<a href="www.site.com/hello?getVar=value" >...</a>

Solution 2

$_GET contains the keys / values that are passed to your script in the URL.

If you have the following URL :

http://www.example.com/test.php?a=10&b=plop

Then $_GET will contain :

array
  'a' => string '10' (length=2)
  'b' => string 'plop' (length=4)

Of course, as $_GET is not read-only, you could also set some values from your PHP code, if needed :

$_GET['my_value'] = 'test';

But this doesn't seem like good practice, as $_GET is supposed to contain data from the URL requested by the client.

Solution 3

If you want to fake a $_GET (or a $_POST) when including a file, you can use it like you would use any other var, like that:

$_GET['key'] = 'any get value you want';
include('your_other_file.php');

Solution 4

You can use GET variables in the action parameter of your form element. Example:

<form method="post" action="script.php?foo=bar">
    <input name="quu" ... />
    ...
</form>

This will give you foo as a GET variable and quu as a POST variable.

Solution 5

One way to set the $_GET variable is to parse the URL using parse_url() and then parse the $query string using parse_str(), which sets the variables into the $_GET global.

This approach is useful,

• if you want to test GET parameter handling without making actual queries, e.g. for testing the incoming parameters for existence and input filtering and sanitizing of incoming vars.
• and when you don't want to construct the array manually each time, but use the normal URL

---

function setGetRequest($url)
{
    $query = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);
    parse_str($query, $_GET);
}

$url = 'http://www.example.com/test.php?a=10&b=plop';

setGetRequest($url);   

var_dump($_GET);

Result: $_GET contains

array (
  'a' => string '10' (length=2)
  'b' => string 'plop' (length=4)
)

View more solutions

Comments

[fabrik]

I know this will be rude but i can't help: why do you want to do that?

[dave]

good question. basically i have links in the top php file, which is included in the index.php, but in order to know which middle page to show, i need the variable that get function will be getting to be set.

[dave]

but lets say how i do it w/o a link?

[Gaurav]

probably not. $_GET works with url data or form submission (action =GET).

[Kevin Beal]

If you are submitting a form to the same page you can just leave the action blank: action=""

[Déjà vu]

Thx, besides the "not good practice" is there any technical issue in setting $_GET? (PHP can be so surprising sometimes...)

[Rishiraj Purohit]

after I do this in let's say line 2 and then a javascript runs at say line 92, which asks for variable $_GET['getVar'] will the script get answer as "value". --- just FYI, script is custom google search engine javascript

[Flash Thunder]

Best answer. Have no idea why the other was marked as valid.

[Mike Q]

You can not set $_GET

[Sagar Roy]

Very Good answer .. personally i like it .

[youcantryreachingme]

@MikeQ - I just did. Anyone wondering about a use case - site user registration form - on successful registration, change the parameter value from "register a new user" to "sign in" and make sure the code for signing in sits below the code for registering a new user and that you've populated any variables correctly that the login code expects. No need for page redirects.

[Mike Q]

Well it's just a variable but the point being I see no good reason to do it. Change the URI instead and redirectr

[oriadam]

i must add that if it is using for testing/debugging it's ok, but as otherwise it is considered bad programming. it is better to pass the processed values to the function/class instead of having it read a processed $_GET. having said that i know from experience that this is not always possible, for example when including a page that you cannot edit, or an old complicated page that you don't want to mess with...

[Vibhore Jain]

Thanks for this - $_GET['my_value'] = 'test';

[soler]

thanks @JosephO ! -- this tip allowed me to redirect successfully!