Parse a URI using the browser's DOM

UFCOE.parseUri.js

(function (w, d) {
    var a, k = 'protocol hostname host pathname port search hash href'.split(' ');
    w.UFCOE = w.UFCOE || {};
    /**
     * Parse a URI, returning an object similar to Location
     * 
     * Usage: UFCOE.parseUri("hello?search#hash").search -> "?search"
     * 
     * @param String url
     * @return Object
     */
    w.UFCOE.parseUri = function (url) {
        a || (a = d.createElement('a'));
        // Let browser do the work
        a.href = url;
        for (var r = {}, i = 0; i<8; i++) {
            r[k[i]] = a[k[i]];
        }
        r.toString = function() { return a.href; };
        r.requestUri = r.pathname + r.search;
        return r;
    };
})(window, document);

What is UFCOE? Is that a global object?

just a namespace for UF College of Ed