PHP function to remove variable from URL string
This function removes a variable name and variable value from an URL string, it will return the new string/url without the given variable, and will adjust the "?" or "&" character properly:
Example
remove_var_from_url("total_items","https://example.com?total_items=10&sort_by=price");
will return:
https://example.com?sort_by=price
The function was later updated to also remove variables from just a query string like "a=1&b=2" or from urls related to site root: "/search?a=1&b=2".
The complete function is
<?php
// can remove variables from: full url, from urls related to site root, form just a query string like "a=1&b=2"
if(!function_exists("remove_var_from_url")){
function remove_var_from_url($variable_name, $url_string){
// this is anything before the "?" sign
$base_url = '';
// the variable separator, can be "?" if is a full URL or can be empty, if we just have "&sort=sales&oprder=asc"
$separator = "";
$start_pos = 0;
$return_string = "";
//
if(strpos($url_string,"?")!==false){
$start_pos = strpos($url_string, "?")+1;
$separator = "?";
$base_url = substr($url_string, 0, $start_pos-1);
}
// start building the string from the base url (which can be empty)
$return_string = $base_url;
$url_vars_string = substr($url_string, $start_pos);
$names_and_values = explode("&", $url_vars_string);
//
foreach($names_and_values as $value){
list($var_name, $var_value) = explode("=", $value);
if($var_name != $variable_name){
// add the "?" once if needed
if(!$separator_added){
$return_string.= $separator;
$separator_added = true;
} else {
$return_string.= "&";
}
$return_string.= $var_name."=".$var_value;
}
}
// remove "&" from margins
$return_string = trim($return_string, "&");
// remove the "?" if is at the end, it means it was just one variable that was removed
$return_string = rtrim($return_string, "?");
return $return_string;
}
}
?>
The oposite function (add variable to url) is also available.
Download the files
Download the function PHP file (1KB)