Node.js v6.14.0 Documentation

URL#

Stability: 2 - Stable

The url module provides utilities for URL resolution and parsing. It can be accessed using:

const url = require('url');

URL Strings and URL Objects#

A URL string is a structured string containing multiple meaningful components. When parsed, a URL object is returned containing properties for each of these components.

The url module provides two APIs for working with URLs: a legacy API that is Node.js specific, and a newer API that implements the same WHATWG URL Standard used by web browsers.

Note: While the Legacy API has not been deprecated, it is maintained solely for backwards compatibility with existing applications. New application code should use the WHATWG API.

A comparison between the WHATWG and Legacy APIs is provided below. Above the URL 'http://user:pass@sub.host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash', properties of an object returned by the legacy url.parse() are shown. Below it are properties of a WHATWG URL object.

Note: WHATWG URL's origin property includes protocol and host, but not username or password.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                            href                                             │
├──────────┬──┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────┤
│ protocol │  │        auth         │        host         │           path            │ hash  │
│          │  │                     ├──────────────┬──────┼──────────┬────────────────┤       │
│          │  │                     │   hostname   │ port │ pathname │     search     │       │
│          │  │                     │              │      │          ├─┬──────────────┤       │
│          │  │                     │              │      │          │ │    query     │       │
"  https:   //    user   :   pass   @ sub.host.com : 8080   /p/a/t/h  ?  query=string   #hash "
│          │  │          │          │   hostname   │ port │          │                │       │
│          │  │          │          ├──────────────┴──────┤          │                │       │
│ protocol │  │ username │ password │        host         │          │                │       │
├──────────┴──┼──────────┴──────────┼─────────────────────┤          │                │       │
│   origin    │                     │       origin        │ pathname │     search     │ hash  │
├─────────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────────┴───────┤
│                                            href                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
(all spaces in the "" line should be ignored -- they are purely for formatting)

Parsing the URL string using the WHATWG API:

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL =
  new URL('https://user:pass@sub.host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash');

Note: In Web Browsers, the WHATWG URL class is a global that is always available. In Node.js, however, the URL class must be accessed via require('url').URL.

Parsing the URL string using the Legacy API:

const url = require('url');
const myURL =
  url.parse('https://user:pass@sub.host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash');

The WHATWG URL API#

Added in: v7.0.0, v6.13.0

Class: URL#

Browser-compatible URL class, implemented by following the WHATWG URL Standard. Examples of parsed URLs may be found in the Standard itself.

Note: In accordance with browser conventions, all properties of URL objects are implemented as getters and setters on the class prototype, rather than as data properties on the object itself. Thus, unlike legacy urlObjects, using the delete keyword on any properties of URL objects (e.g. delete myURL.protocol, delete myURL.pathname, etc) has no effect but will still return true.

Constructor: new URL(input[, base])#

  • input <string> The input URL to parse
  • base <string> | <URL> The base URL to resolve against if the input is not absolute.

Creates a new URL object by parsing the input relative to the base. If base is passed as a string, it will be parsed equivalent to new URL(base).

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('/foo', 'https://example.org/');
// https://example.org/foo

A TypeError will be thrown if the input or base are not valid URLs. Note that an effort will be made to coerce the given values into strings. For instance:

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL({ toString: () => 'https://example.org/' });
// https://example.org/

Unicode characters appearing within the hostname of input will be automatically converted to ASCII using the Punycode algorithm.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://你好你好');
// https://xn--6qqa088eba/

Note: This feature is only available if the node executable was compiled with ICU enabled. If not, the domain names are passed through unchanged.

url.hash#

Gets and sets the fragment portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/foo#bar');
console.log(myURL.hash);
// Prints #bar

myURL.hash = 'baz';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/foo#baz

Invalid URL characters included in the value assigned to the hash property are percent-encoded. Note that the selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.host#

Gets and sets the host portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org:81/foo');
console.log(myURL.host);
// Prints example.org:81

myURL.host = 'example.com:82';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.com:82/foo

Invalid host values assigned to the host property are ignored.

url.hostname#

Gets and sets the hostname portion of the URL. The key difference between url.host and url.hostname is that url.hostname does not include the port.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org:81/foo');
console.log(myURL.hostname);
// Prints example.org

myURL.hostname = 'example.com:82';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.com:81/foo

Invalid hostname values assigned to the hostname property are ignored.

url.href#

Gets and sets the serialized URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/foo');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/foo

myURL.href = 'https://example.com/bar';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.com/bar

Getting the value of the href property is equivalent to calling url.toString().

Setting the value of this property to a new value is equivalent to creating a new URL object using new URL(value). Each of the URL object's properties will be modified.

If the value assigned to the href property is not a valid URL, a TypeError will be thrown.

url.origin#

Gets the read-only serialization of the URL's origin.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/foo/bar?baz');
console.log(myURL.origin);
// Prints https://example.org

const { URL } = require('url');
const idnURL = new URL('https://你好你好');
console.log(idnURL.origin);
// Prints https://xn--6qqa088eba

console.log(idnURL.hostname);
// Prints xn--6qqa088eba

url.password#

Gets and sets the password portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://abc:xyz@example.com');
console.log(myURL.password);
// Prints xyz

myURL.password = '123';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://abc:123@example.com

Invalid URL characters included in the value assigned to the password property are percent-encoded. Note that the selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.pathname#

Gets and sets the path portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/abc/xyz?123');
console.log(myURL.pathname);
// Prints /abc/xyz

myURL.pathname = '/abcdef';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/abcdef?123

Invalid URL characters included in the value assigned to the pathname property are percent-encoded. Note that the selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.port#

Gets and sets the port portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org:8888');
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 8888

// Default ports are automatically transformed to the empty string
// (HTTPS protocol's default port is 443)
myURL.port = '443';
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints the empty string
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/

myURL.port = 1234;
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 1234
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org:1234/

// Completely invalid port strings are ignored
myURL.port = 'abcd';
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 1234

// Leading numbers are treated as a port number
myURL.port = '5678abcd';
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 5678

// Non-integers are truncated
myURL.port = 1234.5678;
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 1234

// Out-of-range numbers are ignored
myURL.port = 1e10;
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 1234

The port value may be set as either a number or as a String containing a number in the range 0 to 65535 (inclusive). Setting the value to the default port of the URL objects given protocol will result in the port value becoming the empty string ('').

If an invalid string is assigned to the port property, but it begins with a number, the leading number is assigned to port. Otherwise, or if the number lies outside the range denoted above, it is ignored.

url.protocol#

Gets and sets the protocol portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org');
console.log(myURL.protocol);
// Prints https:

myURL.protocol = 'ftp';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints ftp://example.org/

Invalid URL protocol values assigned to the protocol property are ignored.

url.search#

Gets and sets the serialized query portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/abc?123');
console.log(myURL.search);
// Prints ?123

myURL.search = 'abc=xyz';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/abc?abc=xyz

Any invalid URL characters appearing in the value assigned the search property will be percent-encoded. Note that the selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.searchParams#

Gets the URLSearchParams object representing the query parameters of the URL. This property is read-only; to replace the entirety of query parameters of the URL, use the url.search setter. See URLSearchParams documentation for details.

url.username#

Gets and sets the username portion of the URL.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://abc:xyz@example.com');
console.log(myURL.username);
// Prints abc

myURL.username = '123';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://123:xyz@example.com/

Any invalid URL characters appearing in the value assigned the username property will be percent-encoded. Note that the selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.toString()#

The toString() method on the URL object returns the serialized URL. The value returned is equivalent to that of url.href and url.toJSON().

Because of the need for standard compliance, this method does not allow users to customize the serialization process of the URL.

url.toJSON()#

The toJSON() method on the URL object returns the serialized URL. The value returned is equivalent to that of url.href and url.toString().

This method is automatically called when an URL object is serialized with JSON.stringify().

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURLs = [
  new URL('https://www.example.com'),
  new URL('https://test.example.org')
];
console.log(JSON.stringify(myURLs));
// Prints ["https://www.example.com/","https://test.example.org/"]

Class: URLSearchParams#

Added in: v7.5.0, v6.13.0

The URLSearchParams API provides read and write access to the query of a URL. The URLSearchParams class can also be used standalone with one of the four following constructors.

The WHATWG URLSearchParams interface and the querystring module have similar purpose, but the purpose of the querystring module is more general, as it allows the customization of delimiter characters (& and =). On the other hand, this API is designed purely for URL query strings.

const { URL, URLSearchParams } = require('url');

const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/?abc=123');
console.log(myURL.searchParams.get('abc'));
// Prints 123

myURL.searchParams.append('abc', 'xyz');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/?abc=123&abc=xyz

myURL.searchParams.delete('abc');
myURL.searchParams.set('a', 'b');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/?a=b

const newSearchParams = new URLSearchParams(myURL.searchParams);
// The above is equivalent to
// const newSearchParams = new URLSearchParams(myURL.search);

newSearchParams.append('a', 'c');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/?a=b
console.log(newSearchParams.toString());
// Prints a=b&a=c

// newSearchParams.toString() is implicitly called
myURL.search = newSearchParams;
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/?a=b&a=c
newSearchParams.delete('a');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org/?a=b&a=c

Constructor: new URLSearchParams()#

Instantiate a new empty URLSearchParams object.

Constructor: new URLSearchParams(string)#

Parse the string as a query string, and use it to instantiate a new URLSearchParams object. A leading '?', if present, is ignored.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
let params;

params = new URLSearchParams('user=abc&query=xyz');
console.log(params.get('user'));
// Prints 'abc'
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=xyz'

params = new URLSearchParams('?user=abc&query=xyz');
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=xyz'

Constructor: new URLSearchParams(obj)#

Added in: v7.10.0, v6.13.0
  • obj <Object> An object representing a collection of key-value pairs

Instantiate a new URLSearchParams object with a query hash map. The key and value of each property of obj are always coerced to strings.

Note: Unlike querystring module, duplicate keys in the form of array values are not allowed. Arrays are stringified using array.toString(), which simply joins all array elements with commas.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
const params = new URLSearchParams({
  user: 'abc',
  query: ['first', 'second']
});
console.log(params.getAll('query'));
// Prints [ 'first,second' ]
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=first%2Csecond'

Constructor: new URLSearchParams(iterable)#

Added in: v7.10.0, v6.13.0
  • iterable <Iterable> An iterable object whose elements are key-value pairs

Instantiate a new URLSearchParams object with an iterable map in a way that is similar to Map's constructor. iterable can be an Array or any iterable object. That means iterable can be another URLSearchParams, in which case the constructor will simply create a clone of the provided URLSearchParams. Elements of iterable are key-value pairs, and can themselves be any iterable object.

Duplicate keys are allowed.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
let params;

// Using an array
params = new URLSearchParams([
  ['user', 'abc'],
  ['query', 'first'],
  ['query', 'second']
]);
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=first&query=second'

// Using a Map object
const map = new Map();
map.set('user', 'abc');
map.set('query', 'xyz');
params = new URLSearchParams(map);
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=xyz'

// Using a generator function
function* getQueryPairs() {
  yield ['user', 'abc'];
  yield ['query', 'first'];
  yield ['query', 'second'];
}
params = new URLSearchParams(getQueryPairs());
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints 'user=abc&query=first&query=second'

// Each key-value pair must have exactly two elements
new URLSearchParams([
  ['user', 'abc', 'error']
]);
// Throws TypeError [ERR_INVALID_TUPLE]:
//        Each query pair must be an iterable [name, value] tuple

urlSearchParams.append(name, value)#

Append a new name-value pair to the query string.

urlSearchParams.delete(name)#

Remove all name-value pairs whose name is name.

urlSearchParams.entries()#

  • Returns: <Iterator>

Returns an ES6 Iterator over each of the name-value pairs in the query. Each item of the iterator is a JavaScript Array. The first item of the Array is the name, the second item of the Array is the value.

Alias for urlSearchParams[@@iterator]().

urlSearchParams.forEach(fn[, thisArg])#

  • fn <Function> Function invoked for each name-value pair in the query.
  • thisArg <Object> Object to be used as this value for when fn is called

Iterates over each name-value pair in the query and invokes the given function.

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/?a=b&c=d');
myURL.searchParams.forEach((value, name, searchParams) => {
  console.log(name, value, myURL.searchParams === searchParams);
});
// Prints:
//   a b true
//   c d true

urlSearchParams.get(name)#

  • name <string>
  • Returns: <string> or null if there is no name-value pair with the given name.

Returns the value of the first name-value pair whose name is name. If there are no such pairs, null is returned.

urlSearchParams.getAll(name)#

Returns the values of all name-value pairs whose name is name. If there are no such pairs, an empty array is returned.

urlSearchParams.has(name)#

Returns true if there is at least one name-value pair whose name is name.

urlSearchParams.keys()#

  • Returns: <Iterator>

Returns an ES6 Iterator over the names of each name-value pair.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
const params = new URLSearchParams('foo=bar&foo=baz');
for (const name of params.keys()) {
  console.log(name);
}
// Prints:
//   foo
//   foo

urlSearchParams.set(name, value)#

Sets the value in the URLSearchParams object associated with name to value. If there are any pre-existing name-value pairs whose names are name, set the first such pair's value to value and remove all others. If not, append the name-value pair to the query string.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');

const params = new URLSearchParams();
params.append('foo', 'bar');
params.append('foo', 'baz');
params.append('abc', 'def');
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints foo=bar&foo=baz&abc=def

params.set('foo', 'def');
params.set('xyz', 'opq');
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints foo=def&abc=def&xyz=opq

urlSearchParams.sort()#

Added in: v7.7.0, v6.13.0

Sort all existing name-value pairs in-place by their names. Sorting is done with a stable sorting algorithm, so relative order between name-value pairs with the same name is preserved.

This method can be used, in particular, to increase cache hits.

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
const params = new URLSearchParams('query[]=abc&type=search&query[]=123');
params.sort();
console.log(params.toString());
// Prints query%5B%5D=abc&query%5B%5D=123&type=search

urlSearchParams.toString()#

Returns the search parameters serialized as a string, with characters percent-encoded where necessary.

urlSearchParams.values()#

  • Returns: <Iterator>

Returns an ES6 Iterator over the values of each name-value pair.

urlSearchParams[@@iterator]()#

  • Returns: <Iterator>

Returns an ES6 Iterator over each of the name-value pairs in the query string. Each item of the iterator is a JavaScript Array. The first item of the Array is the name, the second item of the Array is the value.

Alias for urlSearchParams.entries().

const { URLSearchParams } = require('url');
const params = new URLSearchParams('foo=bar&xyz=baz');
for (const [name, value] of params) {
  console.log(name, value);
}
// Prints:
//   foo bar
//   xyz baz

url.domainToASCII(domain)#

Added in: v7.4.0, v6.13.0

Returns the Punycode ASCII serialization of the domain. If domain is an invalid domain, the empty string is returned.

It performs the inverse operation to url.domainToUnicode().

const url = require('url');
console.log(url.domainToASCII('español.com'));
// Prints xn--espaol-zwa.com
console.log(url.domainToASCII('中文.com'));
// Prints xn--fiq228c.com
console.log(url.domainToASCII('xn--iñvalid.com'));
// Prints an empty string

url.domainToUnicode(domain)#

Added in: v7.4.0, v6.13.0

Returns the Unicode serialization of the domain. If domain is an invalid domain, the empty string is returned.

It performs the inverse operation to url.domainToASCII().

const url = require('url');
console.log(url.domainToUnicode('xn--espaol-zwa.com'));
// Prints español.com
console.log(url.domainToUnicode('xn--fiq228c.com'));
// Prints 中文.com
console.log(url.domainToUnicode('xn--iñvalid.com'));
// Prints an empty string

Legacy URL API#

Legacy urlObject#

The legacy urlObject (require('url').Url) is created and returned by the url.parse() function.

urlObject.auth#

The auth property is the username and password portion of the URL, also referred to as "userinfo". This string subset follows the protocol and double slashes (if present) and precedes the host component, delimited by an ASCII "at sign" (@). The format of the string is {username}[:{password}], with the [:{password}] portion being optional.

For example: 'user:pass'

urlObject.hash#

The hash property consists of the "fragment" portion of the URL including the leading ASCII hash (#) character.

For example: '#hash'

urlObject.host#

The host property is the full lower-cased host portion of the URL, including the port if specified.

For example: 'sub.host.com:8080'

urlObject.hostname#

The hostname property is the lower-cased host name portion of the host component without the port included.

For example: 'sub.host.com'

urlObject.href#

The href property is the full URL string that was parsed with both the protocol and host components converted to lower-case.

For example: 'http://user:pass@sub.host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash'

urlObject.port#

The port property is the numeric port portion of the host component.

For example: '8080'

urlObject.pathname#

The pathname property consists of the entire path section of the URL. This is everything following the host (including the port) and before the start of the query or hash components, delimited by either the ASCII question mark (?) or hash (#) characters.

For example '/p/a/t/h'

No decoding of the path string is performed.

urlObject.search#

The search property consists of the entire "query string" portion of the URL, including the leading ASCII question mark (?) character.

For example: '?query=string'

No decoding of the query string is performed.

urlObject.path#

The path property is a concatenation of the pathname and search components.

For example: '/p/a/t/h?query=string'

No decoding of the path is performed.

urlObject.query#

The query property is either the query string without the leading ASCII question mark (?), or an object returned by the querystring module's parse() method. Whether the query property is a string or object is determined by the parseQueryString argument passed to url.parse().

For example: 'query=string' or {'query': 'string'}

If returned as a string, no decoding of the query string is performed. If returned as an object, both keys and values are decoded.

urlObject.search#

The search property consists of the entire "query string" portion of the URL, including the leading ASCII question mark (?) character.

For example: '?query=string'

No decoding of the query string is performed.

urlObject.slashes#

The slashes property is a boolean with a value of true if two ASCII forward-slash characters (/) are required following the colon in the protocol.

url.format(urlObject)#

Added in: v0.1.25
  • urlObject <Object> | <string> A URL object (as returned by url.parse() or constructed otherwise). If a string, it is converted to an object by passing it to url.parse().

The url.format() method returns a formatted URL string derived from urlObject.

If urlObject is not an object or a string, url.format() will throw a TypeError.

The formatting process operates as follows:

  • A new empty string result is created.
  • If urlObject.protocol is a string, it is appended as-is to result.
  • Otherwise, if urlObject.protocol is not undefined and is not a string, an Error is thrown.
  • For all string values of urlObject.protocol that do not end with an ASCII colon (:) character, the literal string : will be appended to result.
  • If either of the following conditions is true, then the literal string // will be appended to result:
    • urlObject.slashes property is true;
    • urlObject.protocol begins with http, https, ftp, gopher, or file;
  • If the value of the urlObject.auth property is truthy, and either urlObject.host or urlObject.hostname are not undefined, the value of urlObject.auth will be coerced into a string and appended to result followed by the literal string @.
  • If the urlObject.host property is undefined then:
    • If the urlObject.hostname is a string, it is appended to result.
    • Otherwise, if urlObject.hostname is not undefined and is not a string, an Error is thrown.
    • If the urlObject.port property value is truthy, and urlObject.hostname is not undefined:
      • The literal string : is appended to result, and
      • The value of urlObject.port is coerced to a string and appended to result.
  • Otherwise, if the urlObject.host property value is truthy, the value of urlObject.host is coerced to a string and appended to result.
  • If the urlObject.pathname property is a string that is not an empty string:
    • If the urlObject.pathname does not start with an ASCII forward slash (/), then the literal string '/' is appended to result.
    • The value of urlObject.pathname is appended to result.
  • Otherwise, if urlObject.pathname is not undefined and is not a string, an Error is thrown.
  • If the urlObject.search property is undefined and if the urlObject.query property is an Object, the literal string ? is appended to result followed by the output of calling the querystring module's stringify() method passing the value of urlObject.query.
  • Otherwise, if urlObject.search is a string:
    • If the value of urlObject.search does not start with the ASCII question mark (?) character, the literal string ? is appended to result.
    • The value of urlObject.search is appended to result.
  • Otherwise, if urlObject.search is not undefined and is not a string, an Error is thrown.
  • If the urlObject.hash property is a string:
    • If the value of urlObject.hash does not start with the ASCII hash (#) character, the literal string # is appended to result.
    • The value of urlObject.hash is appended to result.
  • Otherwise, if the urlObject.hash property is not undefined and is not a string, an Error is thrown.
  • result is returned.

url.parse(urlString[, parseQueryString[, slashesDenoteHost]])#

Added in: v0.1.25
  • urlString <string> The URL string to parse.
  • parseQueryString <boolean> If true, the query property will always be set to an object returned by the querystring module's parse() method. If false, the query property on the returned URL object will be an unparsed, undecoded string. Defaults to false.
  • slashesDenoteHost <boolean> If true, the first token after the literal string // and preceding the next / will be interpreted as the host. For instance, given //foo/bar, the result would be {host: 'foo', pathname: '/bar'} rather than {pathname: '//foo/bar'}. Defaults to false.

The url.parse() method takes a URL string, parses it, and returns a URL object.

url.resolve(from, to)#

Added in: v0.1.25
  • from <string> The Base URL being resolved against.
  • to <string> The HREF URL being resolved.

The url.resolve() method resolves a target URL relative to a base URL in a manner similar to that of a Web browser resolving an anchor tag HREF.

For example:

url.resolve('/one/two/three', 'four');         // '/one/two/four'
url.resolve('http://example.com/', '/one');    // 'http://example.com/one'
url.resolve('http://example.com/one', '/two'); // 'http://example.com/two'

Percent-Encoding in URLs#

URLs are permitted to only contain a certain range of characters. Any character falling outside of that range must be encoded. How such characters are encoded, and which characters to encode depends entirely on where the character is located within the structure of the URL.

Legacy API#

Within the Legacy API, spaces (' ') and the following characters will be automatically escaped in the properties of URL objects:

< > " ` \r \n \t { } | \ ^ '

For example, the ASCII space character (' ') is encoded as %20. The ASCII forward slash (/) character is encoded as %3C.

WHATWG API#

The WHATWG URL Standard uses a more selective and fine grained approach to selecting encoded characters than that used by the Legacy API.

The WHATWG algorithm defines three "percent-encode sets" that describe ranges of characters that must be percent-encoded:

  • The C0 control percent-encode set includes code points in range U+0000 to U+001F (inclusive) and all code points greater than U+007E.

  • The path percent-encode set includes the C0 control percent-encode set and code points U+0020, U+0022, U+0023, U+003C, U+003E, U+003F, U+0060, U+007B, and U+007D.

  • The userinfo encode set includes the path percent-encode set and code points U+002F, U+003A, U+003B, U+003D, U+0040, U+005B, U+005C, U+005D, U+005E, and U+007C.

The userinfo percent-encode set is used exclusively for username and passwords encoded within the URL. The path percent-encode set is used for the path of most URLs. The C0 control percent-encode set is used for all other cases, including URL fragments in particular, but also host and path under certain specific conditions.

When non-ASCII characters appear within a hostname, the hostname is encoded using the Punycode algorithm. Note, however, that a hostname may contain both Punycode encoded and percent-encoded characters. For example:

const { URL } = require('url');
const myURL = new URL('https://%CF%80.com/foo');
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://xn--1xa.com/foo
console.log(myURL.origin);
// Prints https://π.com