How to build query string with Javascript

If you're using jQuery you might want to check out jQuery.param() http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.param/

Example:

var 
    params = {
        parameter1: 'value1',
        parameter2: 'value2',
        parameter3: 'value3' 
    },
    ​query = $.param(params);
document.write(query);

This doesn't directly answer your question, but here's a generic function which will create a URL that contains query string parameters. The parameters (names and values) are safely escaped for inclusion in a URL.

function buildUrl(url, parameters){
  var qs = "";
  for(var key in parameters) {
    var value = parameters[key];
    qs += encodeURIComponent(key) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(value) + "&";
  }
  if (qs.length > 0){
    qs = qs.substring(0, qs.length-1); //chop off last "&"
    url = url + "?" + qs;
  }
  return url;
}

// example:
var url = "http://example.com/";

var parameters = {
  name: "George Washington",
  dob: "17320222"
};

console.log(buildUrl(url, parameters));
// => http://www.example.com/?name=George%20Washington&dob=17320222

With jQuery you can do this by $.param

$.param({ action: 'ship', order_id: 123, fees: ['f1', 'f2'], 'label': 'a demo' })

// -> "action=ship&order_id=123&fees%5B%5D=f1&fees%5B%5D=f2&label=a+demo"

Without jQuery

var params = {
    parameter1: 'value_1',
    parameter2: 'value 2',
    parameter3: 'value&3' 
};

var esc = encodeURIComponent;
var query = Object.keys(params)
    .map(k => esc(k) + '=' + esc(params[k]))
    .join('&');

No, I don't think standard JavaScript has that built in, but Prototype JS has that function (surely most other JS frameworks have too, but I don't know them), they call it serialize.

I can reccomend Prototype JS, it works quite okay. The only drawback I've really noticed it it's size (a few hundred kb) and scope (lots of code for ajax, dom, etc.). Thus if you only want a form serializer it's overkill, and strictly speaking if you only want it's Ajax functionality (wich is mainly what I used it for) it's overkill. Unless you're careful you may find that it does a little too much "magic" (like extending every dom element it touches with Prototype JS functions just to find elements) making it slow on extreme cases.

If you don't want to use a library, this should cover most/all of the same form element types.

function serialize(form) {
  if (!form || !form.elements) return;

  var serial = [], i, j, first;
  var add = function (name, value) {
    serial.push(encodeURIComponent(name) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(value));
  }

  var elems = form.elements;
  for (i = 0; i < elems.length; i += 1, first = false) {
    if (elems[i].name.length > 0) { /* don't include unnamed elements */
      switch (elems[i].type) {
        case 'select-one': first = true;
        case 'select-multiple':
          for (j = 0; j < elems[i].options.length; j += 1)
            if (elems[i].options[j].selected) {
              add(elems[i].name, elems[i].options[j].value);
              if (first) break; /* stop searching for select-one */
            }
          break;
        case 'checkbox':
        case 'radio': if (!elems[i].checked) break; /* else continue */
        default: add(elems[i].name, elems[i].value); break;
      }
    }
  }

  return serial.join('&');
}

I'm not entirely certain myself, I recall seeing jQuery did it to an extent, but it doesn't handle hierarchical records at all, let alone in a php friendly way.

One thing I do know for certain, is when building URLs and sticking the product into the dom, don't just use string-glue to do it, or you'll be opening yourself to a handy page breaker.

For instance, certain advertising software in-lines the version string from whatever runs your flash. This is fine when its adobes generic simple string, but however, that's very naive, and blows up in an embarrasing mess for people whom have installed Gnash, as gnash'es version string happens to contain a full blown GPL copyright licences, complete with URLs and <a href> tags. Using this in your string-glue advertiser generator, results in the page blowing open and having imbalanced HTML turning up in the dom.

The moral of the story:

   var foo = document.createElement("elementnamehere"); 
   foo.attribute = allUserSpecifiedDataConsideredDangerousHere; 
   somenode.appendChild(foo); 

Not:

   document.write("<elementnamehere attribute=\"" 
        + ilovebrokenwebsites 
        + "\">" 
        + stringdata 
        + "</elementnamehere>");

_{Google need to learn this trick. I tried to report the problem, they appear not to care.}

As Stein says, you can use the prototype javascript library from http://www.prototypejs.org. Include the JS and it is very simple then, $('formName').serialize() will return what you want!

You don't actually need a form to do this with Prototype. Just use Object.toQueryString function:

Object.toQueryString({ action: 'ship', order_id: 123, fees: ['f1', 'f2'], 'label': 'a demo' })

// -> 'action=ship&order_id=123&fees=f1&fees=f2&label=a%20demo'

For those of us who prefer jQuery, you would use the form plugin: http://plugins.jquery.com/project/form, which contains a formSerialize method.

Is is probably too late to answer your question.
I had the same question and I didn't like to keep appending strings to create a URL. So, I started using $.param as techhouse explained.
I also found a URI.js library that creates the URLs easily for you. There are several examples that will help you: URI.js Documentation.
Here is one of them:

var uri = new URI("?hello=world");
uri.setSearch("hello", "mars"); // returns the URI instance for chaining
// uri == "?hello=mars"

uri.setSearch({ foo: "bar", goodbye : ["world", "mars"] });
// uri == "?hello=mars&foo=bar&goodbye=world&goodbye=mars"

uri.setSearch("goodbye", "sun");
// uri == "?hello=mars&foo=bar&goodbye=sun"

// CAUTION: beware of arrays, the following are not quite the same
// If you're dealing with PHP, you probably want the latter…
uri.setSearch("foo", ["bar", "baz"]);
uri.setSearch("foo[]", ["bar", "baz"]);`