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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-14T19:47:36+00:00

I am adding some features to a legacy web application, which has a JavaScript

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I am adding some features to a legacy web application, which has a JavaScript snippet equivalent to the following, for constructing the path of a relative URL. A comment in the original code implies the document.all call might be for Internet Explorer 6 detection:

var url = document.all ? 'path;' : 'path?';
// followed by code adding query parameters separated by &

I’ve searched and read around the web, and understand that using document.all for browser detection is passé. I don’t have access to IE 6, and think anybody that uses it should stop. At the same time, I don’t want to cause problems for any users out there that may still be using it.

My question here: Are there any current browsers (I’m liberally including IE 6 in this group) that, for any reason, would need a semicolon rather than a question mark to separate the path from the query.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Hell no man. The question mark is how it’s been since CGI came on the scene in at least the early ninties, maybe earlier. It’s part of RFC 1738. I don’t think any browser ever has used a semicolon instead of a question mark.

    Edit: Looks like there was a ;params feature in HTTP/1.0, but that’s in addition to the ?query part. Seems to have gone away in HTTP/1.1 though which has long been the standard. I’d be curious to hear if anyone’s ever used it? I’ve been doing web development for 10 years and never heard of anyone using it.

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