URL
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.
The URL
interface is used to parse, construct, normalize, and encode URLs. It works by providing properties which allow you to easily read and modify the components of a URL.
You normally create a new URL
object by specifying the URL as a string when calling its constructor, or by providing a relative URL and a base URL. You can then easily read the parsed components of the URL or make changes to the URL.
Constructor
URL()
-
Creates and returns a
URL
object from a URL string and optional base URL string. Throws if the passed arguments don't define a valid URL.
Instance properties
hash
-
A string containing a
'#'
followed by the fragment identifier of the URL. host
-
A string containing the domain (that is the hostname) followed by (if a port was specified) a
':'
and the port of the URL. hostname
-
A string containing the domain of the URL.
href
-
A stringifier that returns a string containing the whole URL.
origin
Read only-
Returns a string containing the origin of the URL, that is its scheme, its domain and its port.
password
-
A string containing the password specified before the domain name.
pathname
-
A string containing an initial
'/'
followed by the path of the URL, not including the query string or fragment. port
-
A string containing the port number of the URL.
protocol
-
A string containing the protocol scheme of the URL, including the final
':'
. search
-
A string indicating the URL's parameter string; if any parameters are provided, this string includes all of them, beginning with the leading
?
character. searchParams
Read only-
A
URLSearchParams
object which can be used to access the individual query parameters found insearch
. username
-
A string containing the username specified before the domain name.
Static methods
canParse()
-
Returns a boolean indicating whether or not a URL defined from a URL string and optional base URL string is parsable and valid.
createObjectURL()
-
Returns a string containing a unique blob URL, that is a URL with
blob:
as its scheme, followed by an opaque string uniquely identifying the object in the browser. parse()
-
Creates and returns a
URL
object from a URL string and optional base URL string, or returnsnull
if the passed parameters define an invalidURL
. revokeObjectURL()
-
Revokes an object URL previously created using
URL.createObjectURL()
.
Instance methods
toString()
-
Returns a string containing the whole URL. It is a synonym for
URL.href
, though it can't be used to modify the value. toJSON()
-
Returns a string containing the whole URL. It returns the same string as the
href
property.
Usage notes
The constructor takes a url
parameter, and an optional base
parameter to use as a base if the url
parameter is a relative URL:
const url = new URL("../cats", "http://www.example.com/dogs");
console.log(url.hostname); // "www.example.com"
console.log(url.pathname); // "/cats"
The constructor will raise an exception if the URL cannot be parsed to a valid URL.
You can either call the above code in a try...catch
block or use the canParse()
static method to first check the URL is valid:
if (URL.canParse("../cats", "http://www.example.com/dogs")) {
const url = new URL("../cats", "http://www.example.com/dogs");
console.log(url.hostname); // "www.example.com"
console.log(url.pathname); // "/cats"
} else {
console.log("Invalid URL"); //Invalid URL
}
URL properties can be set to construct the URL:
url.hash = "tabby";
console.log(url.href); // "http://www.example.com/cats#tabby"
URLs are encoded according to the rules found in RFC 3986. For instance:
url.pathname = "démonstration.html";
console.log(url.href); // "http://www.example.com/d%C3%A9monstration.html"
The URLSearchParams
interface can be used to build and manipulate the URL query string.
To get the search params from the current window's URL, you can do this:
// https://some.site/?id=123
const parsedUrl = new URL(window.location.href);
console.log(parsedUrl.searchParams.get("id")); // "123"
The toString()
method of URL
just returns the value of the href
property, so the constructor can be used to normalize and encode a URL directly.
const response = await fetch(
new URL("http://www.example.com/démonstration.html"),
);
Specifications
Specification |
---|
URL Standard # url |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser