Just another recommendation. The plugin Purl allows to retrieve all parts of URL, including anchor, host, etc.

It can be used with or without jQuery.

Usage is very simple and cool:

var url = $.url('http://allmarkedup.com/folder/dir/index.html?item=value'); // jQuery version
var url = purl('http://allmarkedup.com/folder/dir/index.html?item=value'); // plain JS version
url.attr('protocol'); // returns 'http'
url.attr('path'); // returns '/folder/dir/index.html'

tl;dr solution using vanilla JavaScript

To access different parts of url use location.(search|hash)

var queryDict = {}
location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {queryDict[item.split("=")[0]] = item.split("=")[1]})

• Handles empty keys correctly.
• Overrides multi-keys with last value found.

"?a=1&b=2&c=3&d&e&a=5"
> queryDict
a: "5"
b: "2"
c: "3"
d: undefined
e: undefined

multi-valued keys

Simple key check (item in dict) ? dict.item.push(val) : dict.item = [val,]

var qd = {}
location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {(item.split("=")[0] in qd) ? qd[item.split("=")[0]].push(item.split("=")[1]) : qd[item.split("=")[0]] = [item.split("=")[1],]})

• Now returns arrays instead.
• Access values by qd.key[index] or qd[key][index]

> qd
a: ["1", "5"]
b: ["2"]
c: ["3"]
d: [undefined]
e: [undefined]

> qd.a[1]    // "5"
> qd["a"][1] // "5"

encoded characters?

Enclose the item.split("=")[1] by decodeURIComponent(item.split("=")[1])

"?a=1&b=2&c=3&d&e&a=5&a=t%20e%20x%20t&e=http%3A%2F%2Fw3schools.com%2Fmy%20test.asp%3Fname%3Dståle%26car%3Dsaab"
> qd
a: ["1", "5", "t e x t"]
b: ["2"]
c: ["3"]
d: [undefined]
e: [undefined, "http://w3schools.com/my test.asp?name=ståle&car=saab"]

This function will return a parsed JavaScript object with any arbitrarily nested values using recursion as necessary.

Here's a jsfiddle example.

[
  'a=a',
  '&b=a',
  '&b=b',
  '&c[]=a',
  '&c[]=b',
  '&d[a]=a',
  '&d[a]=x',
  '&e[a][]=a',
  '&e[a][]=b',
  '&f[a][b]=a',
  '&f[a][b]=x',
  '&g[a][b][]=a',
  '&g[a][b][]=b',
  '&h=%2B+%25'
].join('');

Given any of the above test examples.

ls = function() {
  var a, b, c, e;
  a = {};
  b = window.location.search.substring(1);
  c = function(d) {
    return d && decodeURIComponent(d.replace(/\+/g, ' '));
  };
  e = function(f, g, h) {
    var i, j, k, l;
    i = g.indexOf('[');
    if (i !== -1) {
      j = g.slice(0, i);
      k = g.slice(1 + i).slice(0, g.slice(1 + i).indexOf(']'));
      l = g.slice(1 + i).slice(1 + g.slice(1 + i).indexOf(']'));
      if (k) {
        if (typeof f[j] !== 'object') {
          f[j] = {};
        }
        f[j][k] = l ? e(f[j], k + l, h) : h;
      } else {
        if (typeof f[j] !== 'object') {
          f[j] = [];
        }
        f[j].push(h);
      }
      return f[j];
    } else {
      if (f.hasOwnProperty(g)) {
        if (typeof f[g] === 'object') {
          f[g].push(h);
        } else {
          f[g] = [].concat.apply([f[g]], [h]);
        }
      } else {
        f[g] = h;
      }
      return f[g];
    }
  };
  b.split('&').forEach(function(m) {
    e(a, c(m.split('=')[0]), c(m.split('=')[1]));
  });
  return a;
};

// Parse query string
var params = {}, queryString = location.hash.substring(1),
    regex = /([^&=]+)=([^&]*)/g, m;
while (m = regex.exec(queryString)) {
    params[decodeURIComponent(m[1])] = decodeURIComponent(m[2]);
}

var EmployeeID = getQueryVariable("EmployeesIDs");

function getQueryVariable(variable) {

        var query = window.location.search.substring(1);
            var vars = query.split("&");
            for (var i = 0; i < vars.length; i++) {
                var pair = vars[i].split("=");
                if (pair[0] == variable) {
                    return pair[1];
                }
            }

            return (false);
        }

Why not just use 2 splits ?

function get(n) {
      var half = location.search.split(n + '=')[1];
      return half !== undefined ? decodeURIComponent(half.split('&')[0]) : null;
  }

I was reading all previous and more complete answer. But I think that is the simplest and faster method. You can check in this jsPerf benchmark

To solve the problem in Rup's comment, add a conditional split by changing the first line to the two below. But absolute accuracy means it's now slower than regexp (see jsPerf).

function get(n) {
    var half = location.search.split('&' + n + '=')[1];
    if (!half) half = location.search.split('?' + n + '=')[1];
    return half !== undefined ? decodeURIComponent(half.split('&')[0]) : null;
}

So if you know you won't run into Rup's counter-case, this wins. Otherwise, regexp.

Most pretty but basic:

data = {};
$.each(
    location.search.substr(1).split('&').filter(Boolean).map(function(kvpairs){
        return kvpairs.split('=')
    }),
    function(i,values) {
        data[values.shift()] = values.join('=')
    }
);

It doesn't handle values lists such as ?a[]=1&a[]2

Amazing how many overly complicated and incomplete solutions are posted here. Here's what I'm using:

function getUrlParams () {
    var urlParams = {}
    var queryString = window.location.search.split('?')
    if (queryString[1]) {
        var keyValuePairs = queryString[1].split('&')
        for (var i = 0; i < keyValuePairs.length; i++) {
            var keyValuePair = keyValuePairs[i].split('=')
            var paramName = keyValuePair[0]
            var paramValue = keyValuePair[1] ? keyValuePair[1] : ''
            urlParams[paramName] = decodeURIComponent(paramValue.replace(/\+/g, ' '))
        }
    }
    return urlParams
} // getUrlParams()

Works with following urls:

http://example.com
http://example.com?
http://example.com?test
http://example.com?test=
http://example.com?test=%3F%26%3D
http://example.com?test=ignored&test=%3F%26%3D

Returns an empty string in the first 4 cases, and the string '?&=' in the last two cases. Returning '?&=' rather than 'ignored' in the last case makes it consistent with PHP. Works in IE7.

Here's an extended version of Andy E's linked "Handle array-style query strings"-version. Fixed a bug (?key=1&key[]=2&key[]=3; 1 is lost and replaced with [2,3]), made a few minor performance improvements (re-decoding of values, recalculating "[" position, etc.) and added a number of improvements (functionalized, support for ?key=1&key=2, support for ; delimiters). I left the variables annoyingly short, but added comments galore to make them readable (oh, and I reused v within the local functions, sorry if that is confusing ;).

It will handle the following querystring...

?test=Hello&person=neek&person[]=jeff&person[]=jim&person[extra]=john&test3&nocache=1398914891264

...making it into an object that looks like...

{
    "test": "Hello",
    "person": {
        "0": "neek",
        "1": "jeff",
        "2": "jim",
        "length": 3,
        "extra": "john"
    },
    "test3": "",
    "nocache": "1398914891264"
}

As you can see above, this version handles some measure of "malformed" arrays, i.e. - person=neek&person[]=jeff&person[]=jim or person=neek&person=jeff&person=jim as the key is identifiable and valid (at least in dotNet's NameValueCollection.Add):

If the specified key already exists in the target NameValueCollection instance, the specified value is added to the existing comma-separated list of values in the form "value1,value2,value3".

It seems the jury is somewhat out on repeated keys as there is no spec. In this case, multiple keys are stored as an (fake)array. But do note that I do not process values based on commas into arrays.

The code:

getQueryStringKey = function(key) {
    return getQueryStringAsObject()[key];
};


getQueryStringAsObject = function() {
    var b, cv, e, k, ma, sk, v, r = {},
        d = function (v) { return decodeURIComponent(v).replace(/\+/g, " "); }, //# d(ecode) the v(alue)
        q = window.location.search.substring(1),
        s = /([^&;=]+)=?([^&;]*)/g //# original regex that does not allow for ; as a delimiter:   /([^&=]+)=?([^&]*)/g
    ;

    //# ma(make array) out of the v(alue)
    ma = function(v) {
        //# If the passed v(alue) hasn't been setup as an object
        if (typeof v != "object") {
            //# Grab the cv(current value) then setup the v(alue) as an object
            cv = v;
            v = {};
            v.length = 0;

            //# If there was a cv(current value), .push it into the new v(alue)'s array
            //#     NOTE: This may or may not be 100% logical to do... but it's better than loosing the original value
            if (cv) { Array.prototype.push.call(v, cv); }
        }
        return v;
    };

    //# While we still have key-value e(ntries) from the q(uerystring) via the s(earch regex)...
    while (e = s.exec(q)) { //# while((e = s.exec(q)) !== null) {
        //# Collect the open b(racket) location (if any) then set the d(ecoded) v(alue) from the above split key-value e(ntry) 
        b = e[1].indexOf("[");
        v = d(e[2]);

        //# As long as this is NOT a hash[]-style key-value e(ntry)
        if (b < 0) { //# b == "-1"
            //# d(ecode) the simple k(ey)
            k = d(e[1]);

            //# If the k(ey) already exists
            if (r[k]) {
                //# ma(make array) out of the k(ey) then .push the v(alue) into the k(ey)'s array in the r(eturn value)
                r[k] = ma(r[k]);
                Array.prototype.push.call(r[k], v);
            }
            //# Else this is a new k(ey), so just add the k(ey)/v(alue) into the r(eturn value)
            else {
                r[k] = v;
            }
        }
        //# Else we've got ourselves a hash[]-style key-value e(ntry) 
        else {
            //# Collect the d(ecoded) k(ey) and the d(ecoded) sk(sub-key) based on the b(racket) locations
            k = d(e[1].slice(0, b));
            sk = d(e[1].slice(b + 1, e[1].indexOf("]", b)));

            //# ma(make array) out of the k(ey) 
            r[k] = ma(r[k]);

            //# If we have a sk(sub-key), plug the v(alue) into it
            if (sk) { r[k][sk] = v; }
            //# Else .push the v(alue) into the k(ey)'s array
            else { Array.prototype.push.call(r[k], v); }
        }
    }

    //# Return the r(eturn value)
    return r;
};

Some of the solutions posted here are inefficient. Repeating the regular expression search every time the script needs to access a parameter is completely unnecessary, one single function to split up the parameters into an associative-array style object is enough. If you're not working with the HTML 5 History API, this is only necessary once per page load. The other suggestions here also fail to decode the URL correctly.

var urlParams;
(window.onpopstate = function () {
    var match,
        pl     = /\+/g,  // Regex for replacing addition symbol with a space
        search = /([^&=]+)=?([^&]*)/g,
        decode = function (s) { return decodeURIComponent(s.replace(pl, " ")); },
        query  = window.location.search.substring(1);

    urlParams = {};
    while (match = search.exec(query))
       urlParams[decode(match[1])] = decode(match[2]);
})();

Example querystring:

?i=main&mode=front&sid=de8d49b78a85a322c4155015fdce22c4&enc=+Hello%20&empty

Result:

urlParams = {
    enc: " Hello ",
    i: "main",
    mode: "front",
    sid: "de8d49b78a85a322c4155015fdce22c4",
    empty: ""
}

alert(urlParams["mode"]);
// -> "front"

alert("empty" in urlParams);
// -> true

This could easily be improved upon to handle array-style query strings too. An example of this is here, but since array-style parameters aren't defined in RFC 3986 I won't pollute this answer with the source code. For those interested in a "polluted" version, look at campbeln's answer below.

Also, as pointed out in the comments, ; is a legal delimiter for key=value pairs. It would require a more complicated regex to handle ; or &, which I think is unnecessary because it's rare that ; is used and I would say even more unlikely that both would be used. If you need to support ; instead of &, just swap them in the regex.

<script>var urlParams = <?php echo json_encode($_GET, JSON_HEX_TAG);?>;</script>

Much simpler!

Here is String prototype implementation:

String.prototype.getParam = function( str ){
    str = str.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
    var regex = new RegExp( "[\\?&]*"+str+"=([^&#]*)" );    
    var results = regex.exec( this );
    if( results == null ){
        return "";
    } else {
        return results[1];
    }
}

Example call:

var status = str.getParam("status")

str can be a query string or url

For those who wants a short method (with limitations):

location.search.split('myParameter=')[1]

quick, easy, and fast:

The Function:

    function getUrlVar() {
        var result = {};
        var location = window.location.href.split('#');
        var parts = location[0].replace(/[?&]+([^=&]+)=([^&]*)/gi, function(m,key,value) {
            result [key] = value;
        });
    return result ;
    }

Usage:

var varRequest = getUrlVar()["theUrlVarName"];

Roshambo on snipplr.com has a really hot and simple script to achieve this described in Get URL Parameters with jQuery | Improved. With his script you also easily get to pull out just the parameters you want.

Here's the gist:

$.urlParam = function(name, url) {
    if (!url) {
     url = window.location.href;
    }
    var results = new RegExp('[\\?&]' + name + '=([^&#]*)').exec(url);
    if (!results) { 
        return 0; 
    }
    return results[1] || 0;
}

Then just get your parameters from the query string.

So if the URL/query string was xyz.com/index.html?lang=de.

Just call var langval = $.urlParam('lang');, and you've got it.

UZBEKJON has a great blog post on this as well, Get URL parameters & values with jQuery.

Without jQuery

var qs = (function(a) {
    if (a == "") return {};
    var b = {};
    for (var i = 0; i < a.length; ++i)
    {
        var p=a[i].split('=');
        if (p.length != 2) continue;
        b[p[0]] = decodeURIComponent(p[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
    }
    return b;
})(window.location.search.substr(1).split('&'));

With an URL like ?topic=123&name=query+string, the following will return:

qs["topic"];    // 123
qs["name"];     // query string
qs["nothere"];  // undefined (object)

Google method

Tearing Google's code I found the method they use: getUrlParameters

function (b) {
    var c = typeof b === "undefined";
    if (a !== h && c) return a;
    for (var d = {}, b = b || k[B][vb], e = b[p]("?"), f = b[p]("#"), b = (f === -1 ? b[Ya](e + 1) : [b[Ya](e + 1, f - e - 1), "&", b[Ya](f + 1)][K](""))[z]("&"), e = i.dd ? ia : unescape, f = 0, g = b[w]; f < g; ++f) {
        var l = b[f][p]("=");
        if (l !== -1) {
            var q = b[f][I](0, l),
                l = b[f][I](l + 1),
                l = l[Ca](/\+/g, " ");
            try {
                d[q] = e(l)
            } catch (A) {}
        }
    }
    c && (a = d);
    return d
}

It is obfuscated, but it is understandable.

They start to look for parameters on the url from ? and also from the hash #. Then for each parameter they split in the equal sign b[f][p]("=") (which looks like indexOf, they use the position of the char to get the key/value). Having it split they check whether the parameter has a value or not, if it has they store the value of d, if not it just continue.

In the end the object d is returned, handling escaping and the + sign. This object is just like mine, it has the same behavior.

My method as a jQuery plugin

(function($) {
    $.QueryString = (function(a) {
        if (a == "") return {};
        var b = {};
        for (var i = 0; i < a.length; ++i)
        {
            var p=a[i].split('=');
            if (p.length != 2) continue;
            b[p[0]] = decodeURIComponent(p[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
        }
        return b;
    })(window.location.search.substr(1).split('&'))
})(jQuery);

Usage

$.QueryString["param"]

Performance test (split method against regex method) (jsPerf)

Preparation code: methods declaration

Split test code

var qs = window.GetQueryString(query);

var search = qs["q"];
var value = qs["value"];
var undef = qs["undefinedstring"];

Regex test code

var search = window.getParameterByName("q");
var value = window.getParameterByName("value");
var undef = window.getParameterByName("undefinedstring");

Testing in Firefox 4.0 x86 on Windows Server 2008 R2 / 7 x64

• Split method: 144,780 ±2.17% fastest
• Regex method: 13,891 ±0.85% | 90% slower

The shortest possible expression in terms of size to obtain a query object seems to be:

var params = {};
location.search.substr(1).replace(/([^&=]*)=([^&]*)&?/g,
  function () { params[decodeURIComponent(arguments[1])] = decodeURIComponent(arguments[2]); });

You can make use of the A element to parse a URI from a string into its location-like components (to get rid of #..., for example):

var a = document.createElement('a');
a.href = url;
// Parse a.search.substr(1)... as above

This didn't work for me, I want to match `?b' as the 'b' paramter is present, and not match '?return' as the 'r' paramrter, here is my solution.

window.query_param = function(name) {
  var param_value, params;

  params = location.search.replace(/^\?/, '');
  params = _.map(params.split('&'), function(s) {
    return s.split('=');
  });

  param_value = _.select(params, function(s) {
    return s.first === name;
  })[0];

  if (param_value) {
    return decodeURIComponent(param_value[1] || '');
  } else {
    return null;
  }
};

Simple Solution with Plain JS and Regex

alert(getQueryString("p2"));

function getQueryString (Param) {
      return decodeURI("http://www.example.com/?p1=p11&p2=p2222".replace(new RegExp("^(?:.*[&?]" + encodeURI(Param).replace(/[.+*]/g, "$&") + "(?:=([^&]*))?)?.*$", "i"), "$1"));
    }

JsFiddle

Get all querystring parameters including checkbox values (arrays).

Considering the a correct & normal use of GET parameters the things i see it's missing, on most functions, is the support for arrays and removing the hash data

So i wrote this function

function qs(a){
 if(!a)return {};
 a=a.split('#')[0].split('&');
 var b=a.length,c={},d,k,v;
 while(b--){
  d=a[b].split('=');
  k=d[0].replace('[]',''),v=decodeURIComponent(d[1]||'');
  c[k]?typeof c[k]==='string'?(c[k]=[v,c[k]]):(c[k].unshift(v)):c[k]=v;
 }
 return c
}

Using shorthand operators & while-- loop the performance should be very good to.

Support:

1. empty values (key= / key)
2. key value (key=value)
3. arrays (key[]=value)
4. hash (the hash tag is split out)

Notes:

It does not support object arrays (key[key]=value)

If the space is + it remains a +.

add .replace(/\+/g, " ") if you need.

Usage:

qs('array[]=1&array[]=2&key=value&empty=&empty2#hash')

Return:

{
    "empty": "",
    "key": "value",
    "array": [
        "1",
        "2"
    ]
}

Demo:

http://jsfiddle.net/ZQMrt/1/

Info

If you don't understand something or you can't read the function just ask i'm happy to explain what i did here.

If you think the function is unreadable and unmanainable i'm happy to rewrite the function for you , but consider that shorthand & bitwise operators are always faster than a standard syntax (mybe read about shorthands and bitwise operators in the ECMA-262 book or us your favorite searchengine).Rewriting the code in a standard readable syntax means performance loss.

this will work.. You need call this function where you need get the parameter by passing its name..

function getParameterByName(name)
{

  name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp( regexS );
  var results = regex.exec( window.location.href );
  alert(results[1]);
  if( results == null )
    return "";
  else
    return results[1];
}

This will parse variables AND arrays from a URL string. It uses neither regex or any external library.

function url2json(url) {
   var obj={};
   function arr_vals(arr){
      if (arr.indexOf(',') > 1){
         var vals = arr.slice(1, -1).split(',');
         var arr = [];
         for (var i = 0; i < vals.length; i++)
            arr[i]=vals[i];
         return arr;
      }
      else
         return arr.slice(1, -1);
   }
   function eval_var(avar){
      if (!avar[1])
          obj[avar[0]] = '';
      else
      if (avar[1].indexOf('[') == 0)
         obj[avar[0]] = arr_vals(avar[1]);
      else
         obj[avar[0]] = avar[1];
   }
   if (url.indexOf('?') > -1){
      var params = url.split('?')[1];
      if(params.indexOf('&') > 2){
         var vars = params.split('&');
         for (var i in vars)
            eval_var(vars[i].split('='));
      }
      else
         eval_var(params.split('='));
   }
   return obj;
}

Example:

var url = "http://www.x.com?luckyNums=[31,21,6]&name=John&favFoods=[pizza]&noVal"
console.log(url2json(url));

Output:

[object]
   noVal: ""
   favFoods: "pizza"
   name:     "John"
   luckyNums:
      0: "31"
      1: "21"
      2: "6"

Time for the magic of simplicity...

function getQueryString(URL){
    if (URL.indexOf('?')>=0){
        return = URL.split('?')[1];
    }
}

And if you need to handle #fragment identifiers...

function getQueryAndFragment(URL){
    if (URL.indexOf('?')>=0 || URL.indexOf('#')>=0){
        var result = URL;
        // the #fragment is supposed to be after the ?query
        // but just in case...
        if (URL.indexOf('?') > URL.indexOf('#')){
            result = result.split('#')[1];
        }
        else {
            result = result.split('?')[1];
        }
        return result;
    }
}

Note that given a URL like http://www.domain.com/search?hello#haha these functions will return hello#haha which I am assuming is good behavior, because you will probably want to split up the rest of it for use elsewhere. It would be easy to make it remove the # sign or return only the parts between ? and # (regardless of order), completely without regex.

Roshambo jQuery method wasn't taking care of decode URL

http://snipplr.com/view/26662/get-url-parameters-with-jquery--improved/

Just added that capability also while adding in the return statement

return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " ")) || 0;

Now you can find the updated gist:

$.urlParam = function(name){
var results = new RegExp('[\\?&]' + name + '=([^&#]*)').exec(window.location.href);
if (!results) { return 0; }
return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " ")) || 0;
}

function GetQueryStringParams(sParam)
{
    var sPageURL = window.location.search.substring(1);
    var sURLVariables = sPageURL.split('&');

    for (var i = 0; i < sURLVariables.length; i++)
    {
        var sParameterName = sURLVariables[i].split('=');
        if (sParameterName[0] == sParam)
        {
            return sParameterName[1];
        }
    }
}​

And this is how you can use this function assuming the URL is

http://dummy.com/?stringtext=jquery&stringword=jquerybyexample

var tech = GetQueryStringParams('stringtext');
var blog = GetQueryStringParams('stringword');

From the MDN:

function loadPageVar (sVar) {
  return unescape(window.location.search.replace(new RegExp("^(?:.*[&\\?]" + escape(sVar).replace(/[\.\+\*]/g, "\\$&") + "(?:\\=([^&]*))?)?.*$", "i"), "$1"));
}

alert(loadPageVar("name"));

Use the following to get a query param value given a key name:

function getParam(key) 
  {
  // Find the key and everything up to the ampersand delimiter
  var value=RegExp(""+key+"[^&]+").exec(window.location.search);

  // Return the unescaped value minus everything starting from the equals sign or an empty string
  return unescape(!!value ? value.toString().replace(/^[^=]+./,"") : "");
  }

Keep it simple in plain javascript:

function qs(key) {
    var vars = [], hash;
    var hashes = window.location.href.slice(window.location.href.indexOf('?') + 1).split('&');
    for(var i = 0; i < hashes.length; i++)
    {
        hash = hashes[i].split('=');
        vars.push(hash[0]);
        vars[hash[0]] = hash[1];
    }
    return vars[key];
}

Call it from anywhere in the JavaScript code:

var result = qs('someKey');

Not to beat a dead horse, but if you have underscore or lodash, a quick and dirty way to get this done is:

_.object(window.location.search.slice(1).split('&').map(function (val) { return val.split('='); }));

I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring - I needed an object from the query string, and I hate lots of code. may not be the most robust in the universe but it's just a few lines of code.

var q = {};
location.href.split('?')[1].split('&').forEach(function(i){
    q[i.split('=')[0]]=i.split('=')[1];
});

a URL like this.htm?hello=world&foo=bar will create:

{hello:'world', foo:'bar'}