Curl, How to send list of strings using GET request? - rest

Question

I want to send ['1', '2', '3'] as a GET request.
I thought GET request are used when you are retrieving data opposed to POST (when you are modifying/creating data)
Failing to google how to send list of strings with GET does make me wonder, if it's better to use POST here?

Answer 1

Once you intend to perform a GET request, you could send data in the query string using one of the following approaches:
curl -G http://example.org -d "query=1,2,3"
curl -G http://example.org -d "query=1&query=2&query=3"
Let me highlight that payloads in GET requests are not recommended. Quoting the RFC 7231:
A payload within a GET request message has no defined semantics; sending a payload body on a GET request might cause some existing implementations to reject the request.
Also bear in mind that GET requests shouldn't be used to modify resources: they are intended to be used for information retrieval only, without side effects. Having said that, GET is both safe and idempotent. You can see more details on these concepts in this answer.
If the data must be sent in the payload (and you intend to modify the resource) then stick to POST. Assuming your payload is a JSON document, you would have something like:
curl -X POST http://example.org \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '["1", "2", "3"]'

Answer 2

If you want to send it in the body with curl you can call your service like this:
curl -X GET --data "['1', '2', '3']" "https://example.com/test.php"
For example in PHP you can read it from the read-only stream php://input
<?php
$get_body = file_get_contents('php://input');
A better way would be to assign the array to a parameter e.g. x:
curl -X GET "https://example.com/test.php?x[]=1&x[]=2&x[]=3"
In PHP you'll receive these values as an array in $_GET['x']:
<?php
print_r($_GET['x']);
Output:
Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)