As of PHP 5, you can do the exact opposite with http_build_query(). Just remember to use the optional array output parameter.
This is a very useful combination if you want to re-use a search string url, but also slightly modify it:
Example:
<?
$url1 = "action=search&interest[]=sports&interest[]=music&sort=id";
$str = parse_str($url1, $output);
// Modifying criteria:
$output['sort'] = "interest";
$url2 = http_build_query($output);
echo "<br>url1: ".$url1;
echo "<br>url2: ".$url2;
?>
Results in:
url1: action=search&interest[]=sports&interest[]=music&sort=id
url2: action=search&interest[0]=sports&interest[1]=music&sort=interest
(Array indexes are automatically created.)
