URL

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.

If a browser doesn't yet support the URL() constructor, you can access a URL object using the Window interface's URL property. Be sure to check to see if any of your target browsers require this to be prefixed.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers

Constructor

URL(): Creates and returns a URL object referencing the URL specified using an absolute URL string, or a relative URL string and a base URL string.

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 in search.
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.
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 with 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 # api

Browser compatibility

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