Url minus query string in Objective-C - objective-c

Question

What's the best way to get an url minus its query string in Objective-C? An example:
Input:
http://www.example.com/folder/page.htm?param1=value1&param2=value2
Output:
http://www.example.com/folder/page.htm
Is there a NSURL method to do this that I'm missing?

Answer 1

Since iOS 8/OS X 10.9, there is an easier way to do this with NSURLComponents.
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://hostname.com/path?key=value"];
NSURLComponents *urlComponents = [[NSURLComponents alloc] initWithURL:url resolvingAgainstBaseURL:NO];
urlComponents.query = nil; // Strip out query parameters.
NSLog(#"Result: %#", urlComponents.string); // Should print http://hostname.com/path

Answer 2

There's no NSURL method I can see. You might try something like:
NSURL *newURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithScheme:[url scheme]
host:[url host]
path:[url path]];
Testing looks good:
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
NSAutoreleasePool *arp = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.abc.com/foo/bar.cgi?a=1&b=2"];
NSURL *newURL = [[[NSURL alloc] initWithScheme:[url scheme]
host:[url host]
path:[url path]] autorelease];
NSLog(#"\n%# --> %#", url, newURL);
[arp release];
return 0;
}
Running this produces:
$ gcc -lobjc -framework Foundation -std=c99 test.m ; ./a.out
2010-11-25 09:20:32.189 a.out[36068:903]
http://www.abc.com/foo/bar.cgi?a=1&b=2 --> http://www.abc.com/foo/bar.cgi

Answer 3

Here is the Swift version of Andree's answer, with some extra flavour -
extension NSURL {
func absoluteStringByTrimmingQuery() -> String? {
if var urlcomponents = NSURLComponents(URL: self, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: false) {
urlcomponents.query = nil
return urlcomponents.string
}
return nil
}
}
You can call it like -
let urlMinusQueryString = url.absoluteStringByTrimmingQuery()

Answer 4

Swift Version
extension URL {
func absoluteStringByTrimmingQuery() -> String? {
if var urlcomponents = URLComponents(url: self, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: false) {
urlcomponents.query = nil
return urlcomponents.string
}
return nil
}
}
Hope this helps!

Answer 5

What you probably need is a combination of url's host and path components:
NSString *result = [[url host] stringByAppendingPathComponent:[url path]];

Answer 6

You could try using query of NSURL to get the parameters, then strip that value using stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString of NSString?
NSURL *before = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.example.com/folder/page.htm?param1=value1&param2=value2"];
NSString *after = [before.absoluteString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:before.query withString:#""];
Note, the final URL will still end with ?, but you could easily strip that as well if needed.

Answer 7

I think -baseURL might do what you want.
If not, you can can do a round trip through NSString like so:
NSString *string = [myURL absoluteString];
NSString base = [[string componentsSeparatedByString:#"?"] objectAtIndex:0];
NSURL *trimmed = [NSURL URLWithString:base];

Answer 8

NSURL has a query property which contains everything after the ? in a GET url. So simply subtract that from the end of the absoluteString, and you've got the url without the query.
NSURL *originalURL = [NSURL URLWithString:#"https://winker#127.0.0.1:1000/file/path/?q=dogfood"];
NSString *strippedString = [originalURL absoluteString];
NSUInteger queryLength = [[originalURL query] length];
strippedString = (queryLength ? [strippedString substringToIndex:[strippedString length] - (queryLength + 1)] : strippedString);
NSLog(#"Output: %#", strippedString);
Logs:
Output: https://winker#127.0.0.1:1000/file/path/
The +1 is for the ? which is not part of query.

Answer 9

You might fancy the method replaceOccurrencesOfString:withString:options:range: of the NSMutableString class. I solved this by writing a category for NSURL:
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface NSURL (StripQuery)
// Returns a new URL with the query stripped out.
// Note: If there is no query, returns a copy of this URL.
- (NSURL *)URLByStrippingQuery;
#end
#implementation NSURL (StripQuery)
- (NSURL *)URLByStrippingQuery
{
NSString *query = [self query];
// Simply copy if there was no query. (query is nil if URL has no '?',
// and equal to #"" if it has a '?' but no query after.)
if (!query || ![query length]) {
return [self copy];
}
NSMutableString *urlString = [NSMutableString stringWithString:[self absoluteString]];
[urlString replaceOccurrencesOfString:query
withString:#""
options:NSBackwardsSearch
range:NSMakeRange(0, [urlString length])];
return [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
}
#end
This way, I can send this message to existing NSURL objects and have a new NSURL object be returned to me.
I tested it using this code:
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
#autoreleasepool {
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.example.com/script.php?key1=val1&key2=val2"];
// NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.example.com/script.php?"];
// NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.example.com/script.php"];
NSURL *newURL = [url URLByStrippingQuery];
NSLog(#"Original URL: \"%#\"\n", [url absoluteString]);
NSLog(#"Stripped URL: \"%#\"\n", [newURL absoluteString]);
}
return 0;
}
and I got the following output (minus the time stamps):
Original URL: "http://www.example.com/script.php?key1=val1&key2=val2"
Stripped URL: "http://www.example.com/script.php?"
Note that the question mark ('?') still remains. I will leave it up to the reader to remove it in a secure way.

Answer 10

We should try to use NSURLComponents
NSURL *url = #"http://example.com/test";
NSURLComponents *comps = [[NSURLComponents alloc] initWithURL:url resolvingAgainstBaseURL:YES];
NSString *cleanUrl = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#://%#",comps.scheme,comps.host];
if(comps.path.length > 0){
cleanUrl = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#",cleanUrl,comps.path];
}

Answer 11

I think what you're looking for is baseUrl.