use strict;
use warnings;

use URI ();

my $base_uri = 'http://host/index.html';

my $uri1 = '/bob?joe=1&jack=2';
my $uri2 = 'http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1';

$uri1 = URI->new($uri1)->abs($base_uri);
$uri2 = URI->new($uri2)->abs($base_uri);

print($uri1->canonical, "\n");
print($uri2->canonical, "\n");

print(URI::eq($uri1, $uri2) ? "equal" : "not equal", "\n");
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Output:

http://host/bob?joe=1&jack=2
http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1
not equal
[download]

To be more clear, one should not assume that the order or uniqueness of CGI parameters is arbitrary. Changing the order or enforcing the uniqueness may break some web applications. CGI itself has no rules about parameter ordering or uniqueness. Your application may add such rules or assumptions, but that's up to you.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

I have read (in some spec, long ago) that web browsers may return fields in any order, which means the order of the CGI parameters *is* arbitrary. I can't find where I saw this, though.

Update:

If what I said was once the case, it is no longer. Quoting HTML docs (emphasis is mine):

The control names/values are listed in the order they appear in the document. The name is separated from the value by `=' and name/value pairs are separated from each other by `&'.

So halley is correct. HTTP clients and HTTP proxies should consider ...?joe=1&jack=2 and ...?jack=2&joe=1 to be different. (HTTP servers can do whatever they want, of course.)

This worked for me ...

use URI;
use URI::QueryParam;
use Data::Compare;

my $uri1 = URI->new('/bob?joe=1&jack=2');
my $uri2 = URI->new('http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1');

print "URI's are ",
    Compare(
        {map {($_ => $uri1->query_param($_))} $uri1->query_param},
        {map {($_ => $uri2->query_param($_))} $uri2->query_param},
    ) ? "" : "not ", "identical.\n"
;
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L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

I haven't installed that module, but could you please check what your program reporst for this inpu:

my $uri1 = URI->new('/bob?joe=1&jack=2&jim=4&jim=3');
my $uri2 = URI->new('http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1&jim=3&jim=4');
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---

s$$([},&%#}/&/]+}%&{})*;#$&&s&&$^X.($'^"%]=\&(|?*{%
+.+=%;.#_}\&"^"-+%*).}%:##%}={~=~:.")&e&&s""`$''`"e

Ahhhh ... throwing monkey wrenches into my code, are we? ;)

This, of course, is not going to work, because you have a key collision with 'jim'. If you dump the hash refs out, you get something like:

$VAR1 = {
          'jack' => '2',
          'joe' => '1',
          '3' => undef,
          'jim' => '4'
        };
$VAR2 = {
          '4' => undef,
          'jack' => '2',
          'joe' => '1',
          'jim' => '3'
        };
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I think there is a way to coerce URI::QueryParam into producing a data structure like so:

$VAR1 = {
          'jack' => '2',
          'joe' => '1',
          'jim' => ['3','4']
        };
[download]

but the point is growing moot, as halley pointed out and ikegami (and myself) how now discovered. :/

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

use URI;

my $u1 = URI->new('http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1');
my $u2 = URI->new('http://host/bob?joe=1&jack=2');

if ( sort_query($u1->query()) ne sort_query($u2->query())) {
    print "They're different all right\n";
}

sub sort_query { join('&', sort split /&/, $_[0]) }
[download]

URI::URL is deprecated. Please use URI.