As a little refresher, you may have seen some query URL that looks like this: 

roll_no=2&year=2nd&gpa=8.3

If you have such a URL saved in a variable, you may need to extract the variables and save them separately or as a key-value pair.

#   
## The `parse_str()` function
The **`parse_str()` function** is a built-in function in PHP that parses a query string into variables. This function takes URL-like strings and parses them into a variable that can be used in further manipulations. 

##   
## Syntax
```
parse_str($aString, $AnArray)
```
## Parameters

- The first parameter passed is the string that is in a query format. This query string will ultimately be parsed into a variable.

- The second parameter is optional. It is an array into which the result of the parser function can be stored in a key-value pair.



## Return value
No value is returned by the function.

## Code



<?php
    // no parsing into array  
    parse_str("sports=soccer&players=22");
    echo $sports."\n".$players;
?>

<?php
     // Now we save the result in an array
    parse_str("fruit=apple&nutrient=30&preference=10.3", $resultArray);
    //display the array content
    print_r($resultArray);
?>

From the two code snippets, we can see how these strings are made to become real variables and these variables are saved in the second snippet in an array.

What is the parse_str() function in PHP?

The parse_str() function in PHP parses a query string into variables or a key-value array for further manipulation.