ljharb/qs

Square brackets as object key

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#343 opened on Nov 5, 2019

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 (12 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (8,015 stars) (744 forks)batch import
bughelp wantedquestionstringify

Description

I have following object:

{
  "filter": {
    "/person[]/email": "test@test"
  }
}

When I use it in query string - at the end the result is not the same object:

qs.stringify(...) // => filter%5B%2Fperson%5B%5D%2Femail%5D=test%40test
qs.parse(...) // => { "filter[/person" : ["test@test"] }

'[]' in object key name is the problem - so I replaced them with another character. But I wanna know - can I somehow escape special characters in cases like this one?

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
JavaScriptUnderstanding of qs library's parsing logic
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
45
Research direction
Examine the library's source code in lib/parse.js and lib/stringify.js to understand how brackets are currently handled. Review the comments in this issue for any suggested approaches. Consider implementing an option to escape brackets in keys, e.g., using a backslash or double brackets. Ensure round trip consistency.