efficient way to get querystring variables via javascript

Just used this great snippet in a jquery script at a customer: http://snipplr.com/view/799/get-url-variables/

function getUrlVars(){
var vars = [], hash;
var hashes = window.location.href.slice(window.location.href.indexOf('?') + 1).split('&');
for(var i = 0; i < hashes.length; i++){
  hash = hashes&#91;i&#93;.split('=');
  vars.push(hash&#91;0&#93;);
  vars&#91;hash&#91;0&#93;&#93; = hash&#91;1&#93;;
}
return vars;
}
&#91;/code&#93;

<strong>How do you use this?</strong>
Well, just put this in your script:


getUrlVars()["QuerystringVariable"];

This will get you the value that is in the querystring for that variable.

Example: www.balestra.be?name=marijn
If I write:

Alert(getUrlVars()["name"];

Then I will get a messagebox popped up that displays “marijn”
This comes in handy when you have to get a few variables out of the querystring !