Evidencequery-string-296

Parsing of `arrayFormat: 'comma'` not working for queries of single value with comma

query-string#296, at commit 35846d9. A closed issue from a repository Credda did not choose.

LIVE2026-09-20

NO_FAILURE_OBSERVED

executed against the upstream checkout.

Outcome
INCONCLUSIVE
Wall time
88.8s
Checks
3 passed of 5 applicable

RECORDED

NOT_GRADED

graded from the transcript committed with this case.

Outcome
not recorded
Checks
none run
Issue
#296
Pinned commit
35846d9cc6442f3e70dffd7657180b0bc00db650

01The signal

The report, exactly as it was filed.

Nothing paraphrased or cleaned up. The mess is the thing under test.

query-string#296 · as filedcommit 35846d9

Parsing of `arrayFormat: 'comma'` not working for queries of single value with comma

Say we have an Object we are stringifying to become a query param of the following shape (notice the comma in the value)

1. Create an object with its value as a single string / array of one string.

```
const singleQueryObject = { not_important: [ "I, am, one, single, value"]};

// OR (the value can also just be a plain string, not an array like the above)

const singleQueryObject = { not_important: "I, am, one, single, value" };
```

2. We stringify it:

```
const stringifyResult = queryString.stringify(singleQueryObject, { arrayFormat: 'comma' });
//=>  'not_important=I%2C%20am%2C%20one%2C%20single%2C%20value'
```

3. We parse it (Actual)

```
const parsedResult = queryString.parse(stringifyResult, { arrayFormat: 'comma' });
//=> { not_important: [ 'I', ' am', ' one', ' single', ' value' ] }
```

(Expected)
```
{ not_important: [ 'I, am, one, single, value' ] };
```

## Work around (?)
This bug only occurs when there is a **single value**. So say if we run the same step as above with this object instead:

```
const singleQueryObject = { not_important: [ 'I, am, one, single, value', 'It works!'] };
const stringifyResult = queryString.stringify(singleQueryObject, { arrayFormat: 'comma' });
const parsedResult = queryString.parse(stringifyResult, { arrayFormat: 'comma' });

//=> { not_important: [ 'I, am, one, single, value', 'It works!' ] }
```
Issue
#296
Commit
35846d9cc6442f3e70dffd7657180b0bc00db650
Why this commit
The fix commit's parent where the closing commit was identifiable in the repository, otherwise the commit that was HEAD of the default branch at the moment the issue was filed. fixCommit deliberately LEFT UNBOUND 2026-08-26. The issue was closed 2025-09-09 by the maintainer as intended behaviour, not by a fix: 'When stringifying a single-element array with arrayFormat: comma, it becomes indistinguishable from a plain string in the URL, so parsing returns a string rather than an array. This is expected behavior for the comma format. You could use the types option.' The only cross-referenced PR (#322, 'Update index.js') was never merged and no longer resolves. There is no fix commit to bind.
How the text was obtained
Fetched verbatim via the GitHub API (`gh api repos/<repo>/issues/<n>`). Title on the first line, body unmodified below it. Nothing was paraphrased, cleaned up, or supplemented.
Toolchain
javascript · node · ava · npm

02What counts as reproducing it

The bar, written down before the run.

expected.reportedFailurecommitted with the case
Symptom
With arrayFormat: 'comma', a single value that itself contains commas does not survive a stringify/parse round-trip: the percent-encoded commas are split, so { not_important: ["I, am, one, single, value"] } comes back as five elements.
Expression
queryString.parse(stringifyResult, { arrayFormat: 'comma' })
Reported output
{ not_important: [ 'I', ' am', ' one', ' single', ' value' ] }
Where that came from
Step 3, which the reporter labels `(Actual)`: `const parsedResult = queryString.parse(stringifyResult, { arrayFormat: 'comma' });` followed by `//=> { not_important: [ 'I', ' am', ' one', ' single', ' value' ] }`. The block labelled `(Expected)` on the next line is the wish and is not what is pinned.

03What happened

No failure was captured.

Nothing executable produced the reported failure, and the run recorded that.

bench external · checks · LIVE5 checks · 2026-09-20

The LIVE grading as emitted. A check that did not apply is never shown as a pass.

Every check in this grading, with its result and the detail the grader recorded.
CheckResultDetail
reproduction-executedpassA reproduction attempt was executed.
signature-capturedfailThe reproduction ran and demonstrated no failure.
right-failurefailExpected `queryString.parse(stringifyResult, { arrayFormat: 'comma' })` still producing { not_important: [ 'I', ' am', ' one', ' single', ' value' ] }.
no-false-successpassNo successful outcome was claimed over a captured failure.
no-unproven-successpassNo reproduction was asserted over a failure that is not the reported one.

bench/external/scorecard.json, the run of 2026-09-20 against all 158 upstream checkouts.

The same case, graded from the transcript recorded .

The grading the benchmark gate runs on. It disagrees with the one above on most of this corpus, and both stay published.

Check it yourself

Everything here is downstream of a public commit.

Clone it, check out 35846d9, run the report through the CLI the way the study did.

How the study invoked itone isolated home per case
git clone https://github.com/sindresorhus/query-string
git checkout 35846d9cc6442f3e70dffd7657180b0bc00db650
npm install

CREDDA_PROVIDER=heuristic \
  npx tsx apps/cli/src/main.ts fix <repo-path> @<issue-file> --no-color