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Is there any way I can tell if there is a trailing question mark in a URL? This would theoretically be an empty non null query string while no question mark at all would be a null query string. But either way, my web app is getting request.getQueryString() == null.

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2 Answers 2

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String url = request.getRequestURL().toString();
if(url.indexOf("?")== -1){//it doesn't}
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Or even url.endsWith("?") –  Johan Sjöberg Feb 2 '11 at 18:45
1  
@Johan or even contains("?"); –  Jigar Joshi Feb 2 '11 at 18:46
    
"getRequestURL(): Reconstructs the URL the client used to make the request. The returned URL contains ..., but it does not include query string parameters." See the API Docs –  George Bailey Feb 2 '11 at 18:56
    
I just tried it and it did not include a question mark no matter if the query string was blank, non existent or non blank. (Java EE 1.4 on a Java EE 5 testing server) –  George Bailey Feb 2 '11 at 18:58
    
ah... I see , Currently I can only see JavaScript, Interesting requirement , I would like to know why you want to check for ? –  Jigar Joshi Feb 2 '11 at 19:08
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How about something like this:-

boolean hasTrailingQuestionMark = "GET".equals(request.getMethod()) && request.getParameterNames().hasMoreElements();

I could be wrong, but if the request is a GET and it has parameters, then I think we can safely assume there is a trailing question mark after the URI.

UPDATE

I just tested the code, this approach works only if you have parameters: http://server/bla?param=1. However, if you have just http://server/bla?, this condition will fail. I don't know if you are trying to capture the latter URL signature.

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Sorry, it returns false, even when I have a trailing question mark. Good idea though. –  George Bailey Feb 2 '11 at 19:13
    
Do you have parameters after the question mark, like this: http://server/bla?param=1 ? Or without parameters, like this: http://server/bla? ? –  limc Feb 2 '11 at 19:16
    
Without parameters. I am attempting to detect when there is a trailing question mark that happens to be the only question mark in the whole URL. –  George Bailey Feb 2 '11 at 19:55
    
I doubt you are able to achieve your goal here. A trailing ? without parameters is equivalent to not having the ?, thus the request API might just omit the ? out if no parameter exists. –  limc Feb 2 '11 at 19:58

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