Question

Is there any reliable alternative to parse_str() function for parsing a query string?

I found it very confusing and error-prone specially when query string is coming from an external service (and you can’t fully control it):

$error = "Error message";
parse_str("param1=hello&error=false"); // Overrides $error

parse_str($externalQuery);
// Which variables are setted and which not?

Answer 1

$error = "Error message";
$output_array = array();
parse_str("param1=hello&error=false", $output_array); 
var_dump($output_array);

Do you really need to overwrite existing variables or to create new ‘unknown’ variables?