How to replace url parameter with javascript/jquery?

Nowdays that's possible with native JS

var href = new URL('https://google.com?q=cats');
href.searchParams.set('q', 'dogs');
console.log(href.toString()); // https://google.com/?q=dogs

Wouldn't this be a better solution?

var text = 'http://localhost/mysite/includes/phpThumb.php?src=http://media2.jupix.co.uk/v3/clients/4/properties/795/IMG_795_1_large.jpg&w=592&aoe=1&q=100';
var newSrc = 'www.google.com';
var newText = text.replace(/(src=).*?(&)/,'$1' + newSrc + '$2');

EDIT:

added some clarity in code and kept 'src' in the resulting link

$1 represents first part within the () (i.e) src= and $2 represents the second part within the () (i.e) &, so this indicates you are going to change the value between src and &. More clear, it should be like this:

src='changed value'& // this is to be replaced with your original url

ADD-ON for replacing all the ocurrences:

If you have several parameters with the same name, you can append to the regex global flag, like this text.replace(/(src=).*?(&)/g,'$1' + newSrc + '$2'); and that will replaces all the values for those params that shares the same name.

Javascript now give a very useful functionnality to handle url parameters: URLSearchParams

var searchParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
searchParams.set('src','newSrc')
var newParams = searchParams.toString()

The following solution combines other answers and handles some special cases:

• The parameter does not exist in the original url
• The parameter is the only parameter
• The parameter is first or last
• The new parameter value is the same as the old
• The url ends with a ? character
• \b ensures another parameter ending with paramName won't be matched

Solution:

function replaceUrlParam(url, paramName, paramValue)
{
    if (paramValue == null) {
        paramValue = '';
    }
    var pattern = new RegExp('\\b('+paramName+'=).*?(&|#|$)');
    if (url.search(pattern)>=0) {
        return url.replace(pattern,'$1' + paramValue + '$2');
    }
    url = url.replace(/[?#]$/,'');
    return url + (url.indexOf('?')>0 ? '&' : '?') + paramName + '=' + paramValue;
}

Known limitations:

• Does not clear a parameter by setting paramValue to null, instead it sets it to empty string. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/25214672 if you want to remove the parameter.