wpquery via ajax

Question

I can reload my page and have php write a new wpquery and replace the content on my page, but I really don't want to deal with a new page load. Is there an easy way to send a wpquery string (eg "p=7") via ajax? Even if I have to make a custom php page to query, that's fine.

I'm still new to wordpress so I wanted to make sure there's no easy way to do this before I start taking the "scenic" route. Thanks.

Answer 1

The accepted answer on this post:

Ajax and autocomplete

does an extremely good job of showing exactly how to integrate an ajax call within Wordpress.