snippet for parsing a get variable out of a url

findvar.js

function findVar(attr) {
	var url = location.href.split("#")[0];
	var search = new RegExp(attr + "=.*?(?=[#&]|$)");
	var result = search.exec(url);
	if (result !== null) {
		result = result[0].split("=")[1];
		if (/^-?\d+(\.\d+)?$/.test(result))
			return Number(result);
		else
			return result;
	} else return null;
}