Option to omit array indices

[ljharb]

Option to omit array indices

[ryanseys]

You are da 💣 !

[Dakuan]

true! I like arrayFormat

@nlf thoughts?

[nlf]

I'm a +1 for arrayFormat

[Dakuan]

Trouble with this is that if you are dealing with a PHP or Rails backend, it expects a[]=b&a[]=c which is rather what I was hoping for when I saw the omit indices option!

[wvengen]

The presence of an index is an issue here as well. What about omitting indices (but keeping the brackets) when the option indices is set to 'empty'?

[Dakuan]

I know we dont like breaking changes, but I wonder if the ideal solution takes account of the fact that there are 3 array formats in use:

Rails, PHP, jQuery: a[]=b&a[]=c
Java, Go, c#: a=b&a=c
Express: a[0]=b&a[1]=b

something along the lines of:

qs.stringify({ a: ['b', 'c'] }, { format: 'brackets' }); //a[]=b&a[]=c
qs.stringify({ a: ['b', 'c'] }, { format: 'repeat' }); //a=b&a=c
qs.stringify({ a: ['b', 'c'] }, { format: 'indices' }); //a[0]=b&a[1]=c

[Dakuan]

@wvengen see #65 too

[nlf]

I think that's a good compromise

[wvengen]

Thanks, @Dakuan, for making it clear that the three array formats are all used.

I'm seeing four proposals:

1. Don't remove brackets when indices is false - #65
2. New option brackets in addition to indices - #65 (comment)
3. New option format to replace brackets - #46 (comment)
4. New value empty for indices - #46 (comment)

The first breaks backwards compatibility and only supports two types, so that doesn't have my preference. Two seems more verbose (two variables to set for one issue: how to serialize arrays). Three would include deprecation of the indices parameter in favour of format but is otherwise very clear. Four would be easiest, but it might be slightly confusing to accept both booleans and strings as values.

I'd like to propose a number five
5. Use string values for indices (like brackets, repeat, indices), while allowing true and false to remain backward-compatible (optionally deprecating them at the next major release).

[Dakuan]

@wvengen I think thats a bit confusing, the word indices looses its meaning - {indices: 'brackets'} wouldn't really explain whats going on if you were coming at the code cold. How about:

var q = {
   a: ['b', 'c']
};

// don't break current default
qs.stringify(q) //a[0]=b&a[1]=c 

// deprecate indices option, but just warn for now to not break
qs.stringify(q, {indices: false} // //a=b&a=c DEPRECATION WARNING, please use {format: 'repeat'} 

// new format option, its semantic and can be expanded if the next hot framework
// takes a new approach
qs.stringify(q, { format: 'brackets' }); //a[]=b&a[]=c
qs.stringify(q, { format: 'repeat' }); //a=b&a=c
qs.stringify(q, { format: 'indices' }); //a[0]=b&a[1]=c

[wvengen]

@Dakuan Hmm I agree :) Then, reading your example, I'm wondering if 'arrayFormat' or 'arrays' would be clearer? These options are for the whole stringification, and this only is about arrays.