PHP function to remove key from a query string

Question

I have a query string, like:

n1=v1&n2=v2&n3=v3

etc

I just want a php function that will accept the query string and the name (key), and remove the name value pair from the querystring.

Every example I have found uses regexes and assumes that the value will exist and that it will not be empty, but in my case (and possibly in general, I would like to know) this would also be a valid query:

n1=v1&n2=&n3

I don't know in advance how many keys there will be.

I am convinced that regexes are monsters that eat time. Eventually all matter in the universe will end up in a regex.

Answer 1

parse_str('n1=v1&n2=&n3', $gets);
unset($gets['n3']);
echo http_build_query($gets);

NOTE: unset($gets['n3']); is just a show-case example

Answer 2

function stripkey($input, $key) {


$parts= explode("&", $input);

foreach($parts as $k=>$part) {

    if(strpos($part, "=") !== false) {
        $parts2= explode("=", $part);

        if($key == $parts2[0]){

            unset($parts[$k]);
        }
    } 
}
return join("&", $parts);

}