URL: parse() static method

The URL.parse() static method of the URL interface returns a newly created URL object representing the URL defined by the parameters.

If the given base URL or the resulting URL are not parsable and valid URLs, null is returned. This is an alternative to using the URL() constructor to construct a URL within a try...catch block, or using canParse() to check the parameters and returning null if the method returns false.

Syntax

URL.parse(url)
URL.parse(url, base)

Parameters

url

A string or any other object with a stringifier that represents an absolute URL or a relative reference to a URL. If url is a relative reference, base is required, and is used to resolve the final URL. If url is an absolute URL, a given base will not be used to create the resulting URL.

base Optional

A string representing the base URL to use in cases where url is a relative URL. If not specified, it defaults to undefined.

When you specify a base URL, the resolved URL is not simply a concatenation of url and base. Relative references to the parent and current directory are resolved are relative to the current directory of the base URL, which includes only path segments up until the last forward-slash, but not any after. Relative references to the root are resolved relative to the base origin. For more information see Resolving relative references to a URL.

Note: The url and base arguments will each be stringified from whatever value you pass, such as an HTMLAnchorElement or HTMLAreaElement element, just like with other Web APIs that accept a string. In particular, you can use an existing URL object for either argument, and it will be stringified from the object's href property.

Return value

A URL if the parameters can be resolved to a valid URL; null otherwise.

Examples

Resolving relative references to a URL and URL() constructor provide additional examples demonstrating how different url and base values are resolved to a final absolute URL (though primarily using URL()).

Using URL.parse()

This live example demonstrates how to use the URL.parse() static method for a few different absolute and relative reference values.

<pre id="log"></pre>

#log {
  height: 100px;
  overflow: scroll;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

const logElement = document.getElementById("log");
function log(text) {
  logElement.innerText += `${text}\n`;
}

First we check that the URL.parse() method is supported using the condition "parse" in URL. If the method is supported we log the result of checking an absolute URL, a relative reference and a base URL, a relative reference with a more complicated base URL, a valid absolute URL with a valid base URL (which is not used), and an invalid base URL that results in the method returning null.

We also log the case when URL.parse() is not supported.

if ("parse" in URL) {
  // Absolute URL
  let result = URL.parse("https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs");
  log(`[1]: ${result.href}`);

  // Relative reference to a valid base URL
  result = URL.parse("en-US/docs", "https://developer.mozilla.org");
  log(`[2]: ${result.href}`);

  // Relative reference to a "complicated" valid base URL
  // (only the scheme and domain are used to resolve url)
  result = URL.parse(
    "/different/place",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org:443/some/path?id=4",
  );
  log(`[3]: ${result.href}`);

  // Absolute url argument (base URL ignored)
  result = URL.parse(
    "https://example.org/some/docs",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org",
  );
  log(`[4]: ${result.href}`);

  // Invalid base URL (missing colon)
  result = URL.parse("en-US/docs", "https//developer.mozilla.org");
  log(`[5]: ${result}`);
} else {
  log("URL.parse() not supported");
}

Last of all, the code below demonstrates that the arguments don't have to be strings, by passing an URL object for the base parameter.

if ("parse" in URL) {
  // Relative reference with base URL supplied as a URL object
  result = URL.parse("/en-US/docs", new URL("https://developer.mozilla.org/"));
  log(`[6]: ${result.href}`);
}

The results of each of the checks are shown below.

Specifications

Specification
URL Standard # dom-url-parse

Browser compatibility

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