MiniMindsLab URL Query Sort

Deterministically parse, normalize, and re-serialize URL query strings with stable key ordering and optional value sorting.

Features

• Stable query key ordering.
• Deterministic handling of repeated keys.
• Consistent normalization of:
  • empty keys
  • blank values
  • missing = segments
• Percent-encoding-safe round trip using UTF-8.
• Pure Python (standard library only), offline-friendly.

Install

This package is standard Python packaging with src/ layout.

Usage

from minimindslab_url_query_sort import normalize_query, parse_query

q = "b=2&a=3&a=1&flag&=x&empty="

pairs = parse_query(q)
# [('b', '2'), ('a', '3'), ('a', '1'), ('flag', ''), ('', 'x'), ('empty', '')]

normalized = normalize_query(q, sort_values_for_repeated_keys=True)
# '=x&a=1&a=3&b=2&empty=&flag='

API

• parse_query(query: str) -> list[tuple[str, str]]
• normalize_pairs(pairs: list[tuple[str, str]], *, sort_values_for_repeated_keys: bool = False) -> str
• normalize_query(query: str, *, sort_values_for_repeated_keys: bool = False) -> str

Ordering policy

• Keys are sorted lexicographically.
• For repeated keys:
  • default: preserve original relative order (stable)
  • optional: sort values lexicographically when sort_values_for_repeated_keys=True

Normalization policy

• Missing = becomes blank value (e.g., flag -> flag=).
• Blank values are serialized with = (e.g., x=).
• Empty keys are allowed (e.g., =v).