How can I delete a query string parameter in JavaScript?

Is there better way to delete a parameter from a query string in a URL string in standard JavaScript other than by using a regular expression?

Here's what I've come up with so far which seems to work in my tests, but I don't like to reinvent querystring parsing!

function RemoveParameterFromUrl( url, parameter ) {
	
	if( typeof parameter == "undefined" || parameter == null || parameter == "" ) throw new Error( "parameter is required" );

    url = url.replace( new RegExp( "\\b" + parameter + "=[^&;]+[&;]?", "gi" ), "" ); "$1" );
	
	// remove any leftover crud
	url = url.replace( /[&;]$/, "" );
	
	return url;
}

"[&;]?" + parameter + "=[^&;]+"

Seems dangerous because it parameter ‘bar’ would match:

?a=b&foobar=c

Also, it would fail if parameter contained any characters that are special in RegExp, such as ‘.’. And it's not a global regex, so it would only remove one instance of the parameter.

I wouldn't use a simple RegExp for this, I'd parse the parameters in and lose the ones you don't want.

function removeURLParameter(url, parameter) {
    //prefer to use l.search if you have a location/link object
    var urlparts = url.split('?');   
    if (urlparts.length >= 2) {

        var prefix = encodeURIComponent(parameter) + '=';
        var pars = urlparts[1].split(/[&;]/g);

        //reverse iteration as may be destructive
        for (var i = pars.length; i-- > 0;) {    
            //idiom for string.startsWith
            if (pars[i].lastIndexOf(prefix, 0) !== -1) {  
                pars.splice(i, 1);
            }
        }

        return urlparts[0] + (pars.length > 0 ? '?' + pars.join('&') : '');
    }
    return url;
}

Modern browsers provide URLSearchParams interface to work with search params. Which has delete method that removes param by name.

if (typeof URLSearchParams !== 'undefined') {
  const params = new URLSearchParams('param1=1&param2=2&param3=3')
  
  console.log(params.toString())
  
  params.delete('param2')
  
  console.log(params.toString())

} else {
  console.log(`Your browser ${navigator.appVersion} does not support URLSearchParams`)
}

You can change the URL with:

window.history.pushState({}, document.title, window.location.pathname);

this way, you can overwrite the URL without the search parameter, I use it to clean the URL after take the GET parameters.

I don't see major issues with a regex solution. But, don't forget to preserve the fragment identifier (text after the #).

Here's my solution:

function RemoveParameterFromUrl(url, parameter) {
  return url
    .replace(new RegExp('[?&]' + parameter + '=[^&#]*(#.*)?$'), '$1')
    .replace(new RegExp('([?&])' + parameter + '=[^&]*&'), '$1');
}

And to bobince's point, yes - you'd need to escape . characters in parameter names.

Copied from bobince answer, but made it support question marks in the query string, eg

http://www.google.com/search?q=test???+something&aq=f

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2924160/is-it-valid-to-have-more-than-one-question-mark-in-a-url

function removeUrlParameter(url, parameter) {
  var urlParts = url.split('?');

  if (urlParts.length >= 2) {
    // Get first part, and remove from array
    var urlBase = urlParts.shift();

    // Join it back up
    var queryString = urlParts.join('?');

    var prefix = encodeURIComponent(parameter) + '=';
    var parts = queryString.split(/[&;]/g);

    // Reverse iteration as may be destructive
    for (var i = parts.length; i-- > 0; ) {
      // Idiom for string.startsWith
      if (parts[i].lastIndexOf(prefix, 0) !== -1) {
        parts.splice(i, 1);
      }
    }

    url = urlBase + '?' + parts.join('&');
  }

  return url;
}

If it's an instance of URL, use the delete function of searchParams

let url = new URL(location.href);
url.searchParams.delete('page');

Anyone interested in a regex solution I have put together this function to add/remove/update a querystring parameter. Not supplying a value will remove the parameter, supplying one will add/update the paramter. If no URL is supplied, it will be grabbed from window.location. This solution also takes the url's anchor into consideration.

function UpdateQueryString(key, value, url) {
    if (!url) url = window.location.href;
    var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|#|$)(.*)", "gi"),
        hash;

    if (re.test(url)) {
        if (typeof value !== 'undefined' && value !== null)
            return url.replace(re, '$1' + key + "=" + value + '$2$3');
        else {
            hash = url.split('#');
            url = hash[0].replace(re, '$1$3').replace(/(&|\?)$/, '');
            if (typeof hash[1] !== 'undefined' && hash[1] !== null) 
                url += '#' + hash[1];
            return url;
        }
    }
    else {
        if (typeof value !== 'undefined' && value !== null) {
            var separator = url.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? '&' : '?';
            hash = url.split('#');
            url = hash[0] + separator + key + '=' + value;
            if (typeof hash[1] !== 'undefined' && hash[1] !== null) 
                url += '#' + hash[1];
            return url;
        }
        else
            return url;
    }
}

UPDATE

There was a bug when removing the first parameter in the querystring, I have reworked the regex and test to include a fix.

UPDATE 2

@schellmax update to fix situation where hashtag symbol is lost when removing a querystring variable directly before a hashtag

Here is what I'm using:

if (location.href.includes('?')) { 
    history.pushState({}, null, location.href.split('?')[0]); 
}

Original URL: http://www.example.com/test/hello?id=123&foo=bar
Destination URL: http://www.example.com/test/hello

Now this answer seems even better! (not fully tested though)

This is a clean version remove query parameter with the URL class for today browsers:

function removeUrlParameter(url, paramKey)
{
  var r = new URL(url);
  r.searchParams.delete(paramKey);
  return r.href;
}

URLSearchParams not supported on old browsers

https://caniuse.com/#feat=urlsearchparams

IE, Edge (below 17) and Safari (below 10.3) do not support URLSearchParams inside URL class.

Polyfills

URLSearchParams only polyfill

https://github.com/WebReflection/url-search-params

Complete Polyfill URL and URLSearchParams to match last WHATWG specifications

https://github.com/lifaon74/url-polyfill

Assuming you want to remove key=val parameter from URI:

function removeParam(uri) {
   return uri.replace(/([&\?]key=val*$|key=val&|[?&]key=val(?=#))/, '');
}

Here a solution that:

1. uses URLSearchParams (no difficult to understand regex)
2. updates the URL in the search bar without reload
3. maintains all other parts of the URL (e.g. hash)
4. removes superflous ? in query string if the last parameter was removed

function removeParam(paramName) {
    let searchParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
    searchParams.delete(paramName);
    if (history.replaceState) {
        let searchString = searchParams.toString().length > 0 ? '?' + searchParams.toString() : '';
        let newUrl = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + window.location.pathname +  searchString + window.location.hash;
        history.replaceState(null, '', newUrl);
    }
}

Note: as pointed out in other answers URLSearchParams is not supported in IE, so use a polyfill.

Heres a complete function for adding and removing parameters based on this question and this github gist: https://gist.github.com/excalq/2961415

var updateQueryStringParam = function (key, value) {

    var baseUrl = [location.protocol, '//', location.host, location.pathname].join(''),
        urlQueryString = document.location.search,
        newParam = key + '=' + value,
        params = '?' + newParam;

    // If the "search" string exists, then build params from it
    if (urlQueryString) {

        updateRegex = new RegExp('([\?&])' + key + '[^&]*');
        removeRegex = new RegExp('([\?&])' + key + '=[^&;]+[&;]?');

        if( typeof value == 'undefined' || value == null || value == '' ) { // Remove param if value is empty

            params = urlQueryString.replace(removeRegex, "$1");
            params = params.replace( /[&;]$/, "" );

        } else if (urlQueryString.match(updateRegex) !== null) { // If param exists already, update it

            params = urlQueryString.replace(updateRegex, "$1" + newParam);

        } else { // Otherwise, add it to end of query string

            params = urlQueryString + '&' + newParam;

        }

    }
    window.history.replaceState({}, "", baseUrl + params);
};

You can add parameters like this:

updateQueryStringParam( 'myparam', 'true' );

And remove it like this:

updateQueryStringParam( 'myparam', null );

In this thread many said that the regex is probably not the best/stable solution ... so im not 100% sure if this thing has some flaws but as far as i tested it it works pretty fine.

Using jQuery:

function removeParam(key) {
    var url = document.location.href;
    var params = url.split('?');
    if (params.length == 1) return;

    url = params[0] + '?';
    params = params[1];
    params = params.split('&');

    $.each(params, function (index, value) {
        var v = value.split('=');
        if (v[0] != key) url += value + '&';
    });

    url = url.replace(/&$/, '');
    url = url.replace(/\?$/, '');

    document.location.href = url;
}

The above version as a function

function removeURLParam(url, param)
{
 var urlparts= url.split('?');
 if (urlparts.length>=2)
 {
  var prefix= encodeURIComponent(param)+'=';
  var pars= urlparts[1].split(/[&;]/g);
  for (var i=pars.length; i-- > 0;)
   if (pars[i].indexOf(prefix, 0)==0)
    pars.splice(i, 1);
  if (pars.length > 0)
   return urlparts[0]+'?'+pars.join('&');
  else
   return urlparts[0];
 }
 else
  return url;
}

All of the responses on this thread have a flaw in that they do not preserve anchor/fragment parts of URLs.

So if your URL looks like:

http://dns-entry/path?parameter=value#fragment-text

and you replace 'parameter'

you will lose your fragment text.

The following is adaption of previous answers (bobince via LukePH) that addresses this problem:

function removeParameter(url, parameter)
{
  var fragment = url.split('#');
  var urlparts= fragment[0].split('?');

  if (urlparts.length>=2)
  {
    var urlBase=urlparts.shift(); //get first part, and remove from array
    var queryString=urlparts.join("?"); //join it back up

    var prefix = encodeURIComponent(parameter)+'=';
    var pars = queryString.split(/[&;]/g);
    for (var i= pars.length; i-->0;) {               //reverse iteration as may be destructive
      if (pars[i].lastIndexOf(prefix, 0)!==-1) {   //idiom for string.startsWith
        pars.splice(i, 1);
      }
    }
    url = urlBase + (pars.length > 0 ? '?' + pars.join('&') : '');
    if (fragment[1]) {
      url += "#" + fragment[1];
    }
  }
  return url;
}

You should be using a library to do URI manipulation as it is more complicated than it seems on the surface to do it yourself. Take a look at: http://medialize.github.io/URI.js/

From what I can see, none of the above can handle normal parameters and array parameters. Here's one that does.

function removeURLParameter(param, url) {
	url = decodeURI(url).split("?");
	path = url.length == 1 ? "" : url[1];
	path = path.replace(new RegExp("&?"+param+"\\[\\d*\\]=[\\w]+", "g"), "");
	path = path.replace(new RegExp("&?"+param+"=[\\w]+", "g"), "");
	path = path.replace(/^&/, "");
	return url[0] + (path.length
		? "?" + path
		: "");
}

function addURLParameter(param, val, url) {
	if(typeof val === "object") {
		// recursively add in array structure
		if(val.length) {
			return addURLParameter(
				param + "[]",
				val.splice(-1, 1)[0],
				addURLParameter(param, val, url)
			)
		} else {
			return url;
		}
	} else {
		url = decodeURI(url).split("?");
		path = url.length == 1 ? "" : url[1];
		path += path.length
			? "&"
			: "";
		path += decodeURI(param + "=" + val);
		return url[0] + "?" + path;
	}
}

How to use it:

url = location.href;
	-> http://example.com/?tags[]=single&tags[]=promo&sold=1

url = removeURLParameter("sold", url)
	-> http://example.com/?tags[]=single&tags[]=promo

url = removeURLParameter("tags", url)
	-> http://example.com/

url = addURLParameter("tags", ["single", "promo"], url)
	-> http://example.com/?tags[]=single&tags[]=promo

url = addURLParameter("sold", 1, url)
	-> http://example.com/?tags[]=single&tags[]=promo&sold=1

Of course, to update a parameter, just remove then add. Feel free to make a dummy function for it.

another direct & simpler answer would be

let url = new URLSearchParams(location.search)
let key = 'some_key'

return url.has(key)
    ? location.href.replace(new RegExp(`[?&]${key}=${url.get(key)}`), '')
    : location.href

If you have a polyfill for URLSearchParams or simply don't have to support Internet Explorer, that's what I would use like suggested in other answers here. If you don't want to depend on URLSearchParams, that's how I would do it:

function removeParameterFromUrl(url, parameter) {
  const replacer = (m, p1, p2) => (p1 === '?' && p2 === '&' ? '?' : p2 || '')
  return url.replace(new RegExp(`([?&])${parameter}=[^&#]+([&#])?`), replacer)
}

It will replace a parameter preceded by ? (p1) and followed by & (p2) with ? to make sure the list of parameters still starts with a question mark, otherwise, it will replace it with the next separator (p2): could be &, or #, or undefined which falls back to an empty string.

A modified version of solution by ssh_imov

function removeParam(uri, keyValue) {
	  var re = new RegExp("([&\?]"+ keyValue + "*$|" + keyValue + "&|[?&]" + keyValue + "(?=#))", "i"); 
	  return uri.replace(re, '');
	}

Call like this

removeParam("http://google.com?q=123&q1=234&q2=567", "q1=234");
// returns http://google.com?q=123&q2=567

This returns the URL w/o ANY GET Parameters:

var href = document.location.href;
var search = document.location.search;
var pos = href.indexOf( search );
if ( pos !== -1 ){
	href = href.slice( 0, pos );
	console.log( href );
}

const params = new URLSearchParams(location.search)
params.delete('key_to_delete')
console.log(params.toString())

I practically wrote the following function to process the url parameters and get the final status as a string and redirect the page. Hopefully it benefits.

function addRemoveUrlQuery(addParam = {}, removeParam = [], startQueryChar = '?'){

    let urlParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);

    //Add param
    for(let i in addParam){
        if(urlParams.has(i)){ urlParams.set(i, addParam[i]); }
        else                { urlParams.append(i, addParam[i]); }
    }

    //Remove param
    for(let i of removeParam){
        if(urlParams.has(i)){
            urlParams.delete(i);
        }
    }

    if(urlParams.toString()){
        return startQueryChar + urlParams.toString();
    }

    return '';
}

For example, when I click a button, I want the page value to be deleted and the category value to be added.

let button = document.getElementById('changeCategory');
button.addEventListener('click', function (e) {

    window.location = addRemoveUrlQuery({'category':'cars'}, ['page']);

});

I think it was very useful!

Glad you scrolled here.

I would suggest you to resolve this task by next possible solutions:

1. You need to support only modern browsers (Edge >= 17) - use URLSearchParams.delete() API. It is native and obviously is the most convenient way of solving this task.
2. If this is not an option, you may want to write a function to do this. Such a function does

• do not change URL if a parameter is not present
• remove URL parameter without a value, like http://google.com/?myparm
• remove URL parameter with a value, like http://google.com/?myparm=1
• remove URL parameter if is it in URL twice, like http://google.com?qp=1&qpqp=2&qp=1
• Does not use for loop and not modify array during looping over it
• is more functional
• is more readable than regexp solutions
• Before using make sure your URL is not encoded

Works in IE > 9 (ES5 version)

function removeParamFromUrl(url, param) {  // url: string, param: string
  var urlParts = url.split('?'),
      preservedQueryParams = '';

  if (urlParts.length === 2) {
    preservedQueryParams = urlParts[1]
      .split('&')
      .filter(function(queryParam) {
        return !(queryParam === param || queryParam.indexOf(param + '=') === 0)
      })
      .join('&');
  }

  return urlParts[0] +  (preservedQueryParams && '?' + preservedQueryParams); 
}

Fancy ES6 version

function removeParamFromUrlEs6(url, param) {
  const [path, queryParams] = url.split('?');
	let preservedQueryParams = '';

  if (queryParams) {
    preservedQueryParams = queryParams
      .split('&')
      .filter(queryParam => !(queryParam === param || queryParam.startsWith(`${param}=`)))
      .join('&');
  }

  return `${path}${preservedQueryParams && `?${preservedQueryParams}`}`;  
}

See how it works here

function removeParamInAddressBar(parameter) {
    var url = document.location.href;
    var urlparts = url.split('?');

    if (urlparts.length >= 2) {
        var urlBase = urlparts.shift();
        var queryString = urlparts.join("?");

        var prefix = encodeURIComponent(parameter) + '=';
        var pars = queryString.split(/[&;]/g);
        for (var i = pars.length; i-- > 0;) {
            if (pars[i].lastIndexOf(prefix, 0) !== -1) {
                pars.splice(i, 1);
            }
        }

        if (pars.length == 0) {
            url = urlBase;
        } else {
            url = urlBase + '?' + pars.join('&');
        }

        window.history.pushState('', document.title, url); // push the new url in address bar
    }
    return url;
}

If you're into jQuery, there is a good query string manipulation plugin:

• http://plugins.jquery.com/project/query-object

function removeQueryStringParameter(uri, key, value) 
{

var re = new RegExp("([?&])" + key + "=.*?(&|$)", "i");

    var separator = uri.indexOf('?') !== -1 ? "&" : "?";

    if (uri.match(re)) {

        return uri.replace(re, '');

    }
}