URL Parameters vs Query Strings in Express.js

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

When to use URL and Query parameters

URL parameter :- For clean , small , search engine friendly URLs that lead to a static resource

Query parameters :- For longer , more readable URLs , These are not relevant to search engines

Thanks for reading ! if enjoyed this blog , you can read more on this 👇

Kunal Follow

My tokens expired idk how to write bio. 😪🫠