There are built-in functions for this purpose, in PHP.
First you split the different part of the url : $parsedUrl = parse_url($url);
Here is the part you're looking for : $queryPart = $parsedUrl["query"];
You can split this query in parts with parse_str($queryPart, $_QUERY);
And Voilà ! var_dump($_QUERY)
;
You now can remove what you want from the $_QUERY Array : unset($_QUERY['parameter']);
And construct the Query String back : $queryPart = http_build_query($_QUERY);
Put the query back in the $parsed_url :
$parsedUrl["query"] = $_QUERY;
And finally reconstruct the url :
http_build_url('', $parsedUrl["query"] );
Here you go : http://php.net/manual/en/function.parse-url.php