URL Parameters vs Query Strings in Express.js

#webdev #programming #productivity #javascript

Have you notice something like this in your url. It sometimes look like this 👇

https://x.com/Kunalmadoliya

and sometimes like this 👇

https://www.x.com/in/kunal-madoliya-0378133b4/?skipRedirect=true

Technically there are no difference in both. What is the advantage of one is disadvantage for the other

In this blog topic to cover :

What URL parameters are
What query parameters are
Differences between them
When to use params vs query

URL / Path parameters

We use URL parameter to access a specific resource on the server. For example if you want to find a user by ID.

We can simply implement this simple code with a URL parameter

app.get("/:username", (req, res) => {
  res.send(req.params.username)
})

Everything we enter after the slash will be handle by Express.js for example you want to do a database query based on the username or id depends on the usecase

Twitter uses URL parameter.

https://x.com/Kunalmadoliya

Query parameters

We use query parameters when the data is dynamic. For example if you want to filter, search , sort a mobile from a bunch of different mobile brands we use Query parameters.

for example :


// localhost/product?brand=iphone&price=23000

app.get("/product", (req, res) => {
  res.send(req.query.brand + " " + req.query.price)
})

Query parameters works also the same way. All parameters that have been received are available in the req.query object

A new parameter is always marked by the question mark ?

We can pass multiple parameters in the URL but we do not need another question mark for it.

Differences between URL and Query parameters

Point	URL Parameter	Query Parameter
What is it?	Value written inside the URL path	Value written after ? in the URL
Example	/users/101	/users?id=101
Used for	Access a specific resource	Send extra data like search or filter
URL Look	Clean and readable	Can become long and messy
Mostly used in	Dynamic routes	Search, filter, pagination