CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
alexandernst
alexandernst

Reputation: 15089

parse_str wrongly parsing integers to strings

Consider the following PHP code:

//JS
// var a = { category: [9] };
// var x = $.param(a);
// window.location.href = "test.com/?foo=" + x;

$x = $_GET["foo"];
$x = "category%5B%5D=9"; // this is what $_GET["foo"] looks like
$result = array();
parse_str($x, $result);

var_dump($result);

Now, that will output:

array(1) {
  ["category"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(1) "9"
  }
}

Which is wrong. The element inside the category array should be an integer and not a string. Why is parse_str handling that input so badly? And how can I make it convert to string only the data that is between " or '? (pretty much how json_decode works)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 395

Answers (1)

hek2mgl
hek2mgl

Reputation: 158090

If you are using plain GET, how should parse_str() know about the desired data type? You, the programmer, need to:

  • verify input values (is it really numeric?)
  • cast values to the data type you wish. parse_str() will always deliver strings.

If you want to transfer strictly typed values between the client and the server, you need to go a more sophisticated way . Starting from json, over XMLRPC to SOAP.

Using json in the request might be the simplest way to start, however it does not fit well for GET requests since it is hard to type that in an url, sure you do that by code, however I still think json doesn't suite for GET requests.

Upvotes: 2

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