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why does making get request with empty string as search param results in returning random data instead of no data?

I am making a get request and I wonder if its normal that in the case that no search input was provided, I am still getting a response with random data? Making a get request to pixabay:
var API_KEY = '10677334-f0f7afbe90e1a76e6ab8380d7';
var URL = "https://pixabay.com/api/?key="+API_KEY+"&q="+encodeURIComponent('red roses'); //returns data as expected
var URL = "https://pixabay.com/api/?key="+API_KEY+"&q="+encodeURIComponent(''); //returns random data
I checked the network and in the case of empty string param, Im getting q=%20 for empty string. If I did JSON.stringify that it would somehow work (=not getting results) but my empty string turns into
q=%22%22 which does not seem right
Could anyone help and explain if I actually need to do something for that case or am I doing something completely wrong (it seems like that as strigifying etc does not seem like a typical solution) / shouldnt q= (with nothing provided in case of an empty string actually result in NOT giving me any data back?
Thanks a lot!!

This is probably a conscious decision on the part of the API developer.
For an answer to this, it's best to refer to the pixabay.com API guide.
Note, regarding the 'q' param:
A URL encoded search term. If omitted, all images are returned

converting Google Visualization Query result into javascript array

The url to the spreadsheet I am querying is
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EIBhBQY1zbdBEKXsJIY1uyvdQw0b1cIBSrBE_tZvA6Y/edit?usp=sharing
The query url being used is
https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?tqx=out:&key=1EIBhBQY1zbdBEKXsJIY1uyvdQw0b1cIBSrBE_tZvA6Y&gid=0&headers=1&tq=select%20B%2CC%2CD%20where%20(A%20matches%20%22DIS%22)
Is there a way to convert or store this result in a JavaScript array?
var dis = ["The Walt Disney Company","Entertainment",.1]
I need to be able to manipulate the data at one point and add the new data to the visualization.
Data from one of multiple queries --> Convert to array --> Manipulate data ex: multiplying an input --> data.addRows(manipulated input);

Your query does return a string containing JSON wrapped in a function call:
var responseText = 'google.visualization.Query.setResponse({…});';
This is because you specified out: as an argument for tqx (see Google Developers guides).
If you want it all raw, you can extract and parse the JSON of multiple queries and push the data to an array, so you end up with an array of arrays of row data. For your single query, you could start from something like this:
responseJSON = JSON.parse(
responseText.replace(/(^google\.visualization\.Query\.setResponse\(|\);$)/g,'')
);
var rowsArray = [];
responseJSON.table.rows.forEach(function(row){
var rowArray = [];
row.c.forEach(function(prop){ rowArray.push(prop.v); });
rowsArray.push(rowArray);
});
console.log(rowsArray); // === [["The Walt Disney Company", "Entertainment", 0.1]]

There is a more straightforward solution to this. What you get in the response is a JSONP string whose data is hold within a callback function, just as #dakab has mentioned.
Besides this, recently Google has included some extra text in the response to help with some anti-content-sniffing protections to their API. You can read more about this in this Github thread. The response you get now is an unparseable string in this form:
/*O_o*/
google.visualization.Query.setResponse({…});
One way to deal with both issues (the "comment" string and the data hidden inside the callback function) is to evaluate the function. Whether this is risky or not is something intrinsic to the JSONP format, so you must be aware of where your response comes from and decide if it's worth the risk. But, considering it comes from a request to a Google server, and in terms of parsing, it works.
So in your case, what you could do is just declare the callback function (note that you can pass your own function name in the query string, as also mentioned in the Google Developers guides) and then evaluate it. I take inspiration on this thread:
//Declare your call back function
function callback(data){
return data;
}
//Evaluate and store the data in your callback function
var result = eval(UrlFetchApp.fetch(url + uri, options).getContentText());
In "result" you'll have an already parsed JSON that you can convert to whatever you wish.

According to Google's documentation on their Visualization API for response formats, you can add a header in your request that will return JSON without the function or comment.
If you add a header named X-DataSource-Auth in your request, the Visualization API will respond in JSON format rather than JSONP format, which is the default format of the response and includes the JSON wrapped in a function handler.
However, even with this header present, the API prepends a strange string to the response: )]}' which I think has to do with the anti-content-sniffing mentioned by #Diego. Okay, Google — even with an OAuth token do you really need to do that?
So, to get at the actual JSON in that response, you can use the following Javascript to get around it. Assume responseBody is what the API actually returns to you, and that data is storing the JSON you want.
var data = JSON.parse(responseBody.replace(/^\)]\}'\n/, ''));

Assuming str is the returned JSONP formatted response:
var str = `/*O_o*/
google.visualization.Query.setResponse({"version":"0.6","reqId":"0","status":"ok","sig":"403123069","table":{"cols":[{"id":"A","label":"Timestamp","type":"datetime","pattern":"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"},{"id":"B","label":"AskGod Search Query","type":"string"}],"rows":[{"c":[{"v":"Date(2020,9,25,12,30,5)","f":"25/10/2020 12:30:05"},{"v":"لا أعرف لماذا"}]}],"parsedNumHeaders":1}});`
console.log(JSON.parse(str.match(/(?<=.*\().*(?=\);)/s)[0]))

Populate Javascript Object With Data Returned From Program Call

I have a javascript function that calls an external program and I need to put the result into an object, which will contain multiple rows with multiple values for each, example below:
$.get(programcall , function(data) {
var dealers = {};
data = {0:{'name':'name1','address':'address1','phone':'phone1','miles':1.2},1:{'name':'name2','address':'address2','phone':'phone2','miles':2.2}};
dealers = data;
});
This test works because "data" is not enclosed in quotes, however when the content of "data" is returned from the called program, it just becomes text content in "dealers".
How can I get the value stored as an object?
The called program is MINE, so I can change the format if necessary to make it work.
The data will be a list of customers with name, address etc, which I want to process using javascript and to populate a DIV.

If the string is valid JSON, use the native JSON.parse function to turn it into an object.
For example:
data = JSON.parse('{"mything": 3}')
One thing to look out for: JSON needs double quotes around key names, so {"mything": 3} works but {'mything': 3} will not validate.

Your external server call is returning string content as the data object. This is, hopefully, a valid JSON format but it is still just a string.
What you probably want to do is use jQuery's getJSON function instead of a simple $.get, since it will take care of converting the response to a JSON object similar to your example.
$.getJSON(programcall, function(data) {
// data is now a JSON object not a string, if it's valid json from your server response

Send JSON to the server using jQuery

I have the need to send an array of ID's to my server-side in the form of a JSON Object.I am using a dropdownlist where multiple values can be selected to do an action with them.
To get them in an array, I've used:
var selectedArray = [];
var selectObj = document.getElementById('addedList');
var i=0;
var count=0;
for(i=0;i<selectObj.options.length;i++){
selectedArray[count] = selectObj.options[i].value;
count++;
}
Now the question is, I need to get those ID's to the server.
I've always thought of sending it like a JSON object, since it has a variable amount of parameters. As far as I found out, you can convert a JS object to JSON.
Now I do have a few questions:
Could you give me an example of how to convert it? There seem to be a million ways, one of them being JSON.stringify(jsObj);. My object would simply consist of an array of values. As far as I know this would be an example:
{ array : ["value1","value2","value3"] }
Another question is:
How can I send this using jQuery? Can I send a JSON object to the server using $.getJSON? (This uses $.GET under the hood), or do I need to use $.POST ?
Now I've just been trying, but can't get it out...
$.getJSON code
$.getJSON("removerequest.htm",{ ids: JSON.stringify(selectedArray) }, function(data){
$('#removerequestdiv').text('');
$('#removerequestdiv').append('<select name="addedList">');
for(var index in data){
$('#removerequestdiv').append('<option value="' + data[index].id + '">' + data[index].voornaam + data[index].familienaam + '</option>');
}
$('#removerequestdiv').append('</select>');
});

The $.getJSON() routine is for fetching JSON-encoded content from the server. Your problem is the opposite: you want to send it to the server.
You should understand the terminology here. There's no such thing really as a "JSON object" in Javascript. It's just a Javascript object of some sort, and there's nothing special about it in that sense. What you want to do is serialize the Javascript object into a single string. That string is your parameter you'll send to the server, and the server will deserialize that string back into an object (in the context of whatever language your server code is using).
Thus, when you call JSON.stringify(obj), what you get is just a string. Passing such a string back to the server is no different than passing any other string; it's just a parameter. Use $.post() to post it, or you can even just stuff it into the value of a simple form input element and post a form the old-fashioned way.

How do I remove the square brackets at the end of a JS variable name during AJAX calls?

I currently have the following javascript array:
var stuffs = ['a', 'b'];
I pass the above to the server code using jQuery's load:
var data = {
'stuffs': stuffs
};
$(".output").load("/my-server-code/", data, function() {
});
On the server side, if I print the content of request.POST(I'm currently using Django), I get:
'stuffs[]': [u'a', u'b']
Notice the [] at the prefix of the variable name stuffs. Is there a way to remove that [] before it reaches the server code?

This is default behavior in jQuery 1.4+...if you want the post to be &stuffs=a&stuffs=b instead of &stuffs[]=a&stuffs[]=b you should set the traditional option to true, like this:
$.ajaxSetup({traditional: true});
Note this affects all requests... which is usually what you want in this case. If you want it to be per-request you should use the longer $.ajax() call and set traditional: true there. You can find more info about traditional in the $.param() documentation.

When an array is submitted using a GET request, through a form or AJAX, each element is given the name of the array, followed by a pair of optionally empty square brackets. So the jQuery is generating the url http://example.com/get.php?stuff[]=a&stuff[]=b. This is the only way of submitting an array, and the javascript is following the standard.
POST requests work in exactly the same way (unless the json is sent as one long json string).
In PHP, this is parsed back into the original array, so although the query string can be a little strange, the data is recieved as it was sent. $_GET['stuff'][0] works correctly in PHP.
I'm not sure how Django parses query strings.

The [] indicates that the variable is an array. I imagine that the appending of the [] to your variable name is Python/Django's way of telling you it is an array. You could probably implement your own print function which does not show them.