progress 4gl OpenEdge parse key/value-pair string aka Query-String -

i cant find on how should parse string of key/value paris aka query-string one:

fieldtype="string"&fieldformat="^[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+$" 

field separators might contained in value above example not used web-request paramlist.

i found this: running loop on comma delimited list of items progress 4gl

but entry() not care if data in qoutation.

= edit =

so found not ideal solution hope nobody needs mimic

do jj=1 num-entries(curr,"&"):              define variable pos integer     no-undo.             assign                  k   = entry( 1, entry(jj,curr,"&"), "=")                                 v   = entry( 2, entry(jj,curr,"&"), "=")                 pos = index( curr,  k + "=" ).              /* check if qouted value*/             if num-entries( substring( curr, pos, abs( index(curr, "&", pos) - pos) ) ,'"') > 1                  assign v = entry( 2, substring( curr, pos) , '"').    end. 

the if-statment nightmares made of!

building tom's , themaddba's answers.

assumption: first & 1 want split on.

define variable cqrystring character no-undo. define variable isplitindex integer no-undo. define variable ctype character no-undo format "x(30)" label "  type". define variable cformat character no-undo format "x(30)" label "format".  assign    cqrystring = 'fieldtype=string&fieldformat="^[a-z0-9!#$%&~'*+/=?^_`~{|}~~-]+$"'    isplitindex = index(cqrystring, "&")    ctype = substring(cqrystring, 1, isplitindex - 1)   cformat = substring(cqrystring, isplitindex + 1, length(cqrystring))   ctype = substring(ctype, index(ctype, "=") + 1, length(ctype))   cformat = substring(cformat, index(cformat, "=") + 1, length(cformat))   .  assign ctype = entry(2, ctype, '"') when substring(ctype, 1, 1) = '"'. assign cformat = entry(2, cformat, '"') when substring(cformat, 1, 1) = '"'.  display   ctype skip   cformat side-labels.