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Gin Web Framework

Query and post form

When handling a POST request, you often need to read values from both the URL query string and the request body. Gin keeps these two sources separate, so you can access each independently:

  • c.Query("key") / c.DefaultQuery("key", "default") — reads from the URL query string.
  • c.PostForm("key") / c.DefaultPostForm("key", "default") — reads from the application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data request body.

This is common in REST APIs where the route identifies the resource (via query parameters like id) while the body carries the payload (like name and message).

package main


import (
  "fmt"
  "net/http"


  "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)


func main() {
  router := gin.Default()


  router.POST("/post", func(c *gin.Context) {
    id := c.Query("id")
    page := c.DefaultQuery("page", "0")
    name := c.PostForm("name")
    message := c.PostForm("message")


    fmt.Printf("id: %s; page: %s; name: %s; message: %s\n", id, page, name, message)
    c.String(http.StatusOK, "id: %s; page: %s; name: %s; message: %s", id, page, name, message)
  })


  router.Run(":8080")
}

Test it

Terminal window
# Query params in URL, form data in body
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/post?id=1234&page=1" \
  -d "name=manu&message=this_is_great"
# Output: id: 1234; page: 1; name: manu; message: this_is_great


# Missing page -- falls back to default value "0"
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/post?id=1234" \
  -d "name=manu&message=hello"
# Output: id: 1234; page: 0; name: manu; message: hello

See also