The WHATWG URL API

Browser-compatible URL class, implemented by following the WHATWG URL Standard. Examples of parsed URLs may be found in the Standard itself. The URL class is also available on the global object.

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.

new URL(input, base?): URL

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 myURL = new URL('/foo', 'https://example.org/');
// https://example.org/foo

The URL constructor is accessible as a property on the global object. It can also be imported from the built-in url module:

import { URL } from 'node:url';
console.log(URL === globalThis.URL); // Prints 'true'.

console.log(URL === require('node:url').URL); // Prints 'true'.

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

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

const myURL = new URL('https://測試');
// https://xn--g6w251d/

In cases where it is not known in advance if input is an absolute URL and a base is provided, it is advised to validate that the origin of the URL object is what is expected.

let myURL = new URL('http://Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// http://example.com/

myURL = new URL('https://Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// https://example.com/

myURL = new URL('foo://Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// foo://Example.com/

myURL = new URL('http:Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// http://example.com/

myURL = new URL('https:Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// https://example.org/Example.com/

myURL = new URL('foo:Example.com/', 'https://example.org/');
// foo:Example.com/

Gets and sets the fragment portion of the 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. The selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

Gets and sets the host portion of the 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.

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

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

// Setting the hostname does not change the port
myURL.hostname = 'example.com';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.com:81/foo

// Use myURL.host to change the hostname and port
myURL.host = 'example.org:82';
console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://example.org:82/foo

Invalid host name values assigned to the hostname property are ignored.

Gets and sets the serialized 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.

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

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

const idnURL = new URL('https://測試');
console.log(idnURL.origin);
// Prints https://xn--g6w251d

console.log(idnURL.hostname);
// Prints xn--g6w251d

Gets and sets the password portion of the 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. The selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

Gets and sets the path portion of the 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. The selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

Gets and sets the port portion of the URL.

The port value may be a number or 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 ('').

The port value can be an empty string in which case the port depends on the protocol/scheme:

Upon assigning a value to the port, the value will first be converted to a string using .toString().

If that string is invalid but it begins with a number, the leading number is assigned to port. If the number lies outside the range denoted above, it is ignored.

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 which are not represented in scientific notation
// will be ignored.
myURL.port = 1e10; // 10000000000, will be range-checked as described below
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 1234

Numbers which contain a decimal point, such as floating-point numbers or numbers in scientific notation, are not an exception to this rule. Leading numbers up to the decimal point will be set as the URL's port, assuming they are valid:

myURL.port = 4.567e21;
console.log(myURL.port);
// Prints 4 (because it is the leading number in the string '4.567e21')

Gets and sets the protocol portion of the 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.

The WHATWG URL Standard considers a handful of URL protocol schemes to be special in terms of how they are parsed and serialized. When a URL is parsed using one of these special protocols, the url.protocol property may be changed to another special protocol but cannot be changed to a non-special protocol, and vice versa.

For instance, changing from http to https works:

const u = new URL('http://example.org');
u.protocol = 'https';
console.log(u.href);
// https://example.org/

However, changing from http to a hypothetical fish protocol does not because the new protocol is not special.

const u = new URL('http://example.org');
u.protocol = 'fish';
console.log(u.href);
// http://example.org/

Likewise, changing from a non-special protocol to a special protocol is also not permitted:

const u = new URL('fish://example.org');
u.protocol = 'http';
console.log(u.href);
// fish://example.org

According to the WHATWG URL Standard, special protocol schemes are ftp, file, http, https, ws, and wss.

Gets and sets the serialized query portion of the 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. The selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

Gets the URLSearchParams object representing the query parameters of the URL. This property is read-only but the URLSearchParams object it provides can be used to mutate the URL instance; to replace the entirety of query parameters of the URL, use the url.search setter. See URLSearchParams documentation for details.

Use care when using .searchParams to modify the URL because, per the WHATWG specification, the URLSearchParams object uses different rules to determine which characters to percent-encode. For instance, the URL object will not percent encode the ASCII tilde (~) character, while URLSearchParams will always encode it:

const myURL = new URL('https://example.org/abc?foo=~bar');

console.log(myURL.search);  // prints ?foo=~bar

// Modify the URL via searchParams...
myURL.searchParams.sort();

console.log(myURL.search);  // prints ?foo=%7Ebar

Gets and sets the username portion of the 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. The selection of which characters to percent-encode may vary somewhat from what the url.parse() and url.format() methods would produce.

url.toString(): string

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

url.toJSON(): string

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 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/"]

URL.createObjectURL(blob): string

Creates a 'blob:nodedata:...' URL string that represents the given Blob object and can be used to retrieve the Blob later.

const {
  Blob,
  resolveObjectURL,
} = require('node:buffer');

const blob = new Blob(['hello']);
const id = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

// later...

const otherBlob = resolveObjectURL(id);
console.log(otherBlob.size);

The data stored by the registered Blob will be retained in memory until URL.revokeObjectURL() is called to remove it.

Blob objects are registered within the current thread. If using Worker Threads, Blob objects registered within one Worker will not be available to other workers or the main thread.

URL.revokeObjectURL(id): void

Removes the stored Blob identified by the given ID. Attempting to revoke a ID that isn't registered will silently fail.

URL.canParse(input, base?): boolean

Checks if an input relative to the base can be parsed to a URL.

const isValid = URL.canParse('/foo', 'https://example.org/'); // true

const isNotValid = URL.canParse('/foo'); // false

URL.parse(input, base?): URL | null

Parses a string as a URL. If base is provided, it will be used as the base URL for the purpose of resolving non-absolute input URLs. Returns null if the parameters can't be resolved to a valid URL.

The URLPattern API provides an interface to match URLs or parts of URLs against a pattern.

const myPattern = new URLPattern('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/*.html');
console.log(myPattern.exec('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html'));
// Prints:
// {
//  "hash": { "groups": {  "0": "" },  "input": "" },
//  "hostname": { "groups": {}, "input": "nodejs.org" },
//  "inputs": [
//    "https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html"
//  ],
//  "password": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" },
//  "pathname": { "groups": { "0": "dns" }, "input": "/docs/latest/api/dns.html" },
//  "port": { "groups": {}, "input": "" },
//  "protocol": { "groups": {}, "input": "https" },
//  "search": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" },
//  "username": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" }
// }

console.log(myPattern.test('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html'));
// Prints: true

new URLPattern(): URLPattern

Instantiate a new empty URLPattern object.

new URLPattern(string, baseURL?, options?): URLPattern

Parse the string as a URL, and use it to instantiate a new URLPattern object.

If baseURL is not specified, it defaults to undefined.

An option can have ignoreCase boolean attribute which enables case-insensitive matching if set to true.

The constructor can throw a TypeError to indicate parsing failure.

new URLPattern(obj, baseURL?, options?): URLPattern

Parse the Object as an input pattern, and use it to instantiate a new URLPattern object. The object members can be any of protocol, username, password, hostname, port, pathname, search, hash or baseURL.

If baseURL is not specified, it defaults to undefined.

An option can have ignoreCase boolean attribute which enables case-insensitive matching if set to true.

The constructor can throw a TypeError to indicate parsing failure.

urlPattern.exec(input, baseURL?): void

Input can be a string or an object providing the individual URL parts. The object members can be any of protocol, username, password, hostname, port, pathname, search, hash or baseURL.

If baseURL is not specified, it will default to undefined.

Returns an object with an inputs key containing the array of arguments passed into the function and keys of the URL components which contains the matched input and matched groups.

const myPattern = new URLPattern('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/*.html');
console.log(myPattern.exec('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html'));
// Prints:
// {
//  "hash": { "groups": {  "0": "" },  "input": "" },
//  "hostname": { "groups": {}, "input": "nodejs.org" },
//  "inputs": [
//    "https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html"
//  ],
//  "password": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" },
//  "pathname": { "groups": { "0": "dns" }, "input": "/docs/latest/api/dns.html" },
//  "port": { "groups": {}, "input": "" },
//  "protocol": { "groups": {}, "input": "https" },
//  "search": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" },
//  "username": { "groups": { "0": "" }, "input": "" }
// }

urlPattern.test(input, baseURL?): boolean

Input can be a string or an object providing the individual URL parts. The object members can be any of protocol, username, password, hostname, port, pathname, search, hash or baseURL.

If baseURL is not specified, it will default to undefined.

Returns a boolean indicating if the input matches the current pattern.

const myPattern = new URLPattern('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/*.html');
console.log(myPattern.test('https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/dns.html'));
// Prints: true

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 URLSearchParams class is also available on the global object.

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 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

new URLSearchParams(): URLSearchParams

Instantiate a new empty URLSearchParams object.

new URLSearchParams(string): URLSearchParams

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

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'

new URLSearchParams(obj): URLSearchParams

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

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 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'

new URLSearchParams(iterable): URLSearchParams

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.

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): void

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

urlSearchParams.delete(name, value?): void

If value is provided, removes all name-value pairs where name is name and value is value..

If value is not provided, removes all name-value pairs whose name is name.

urlSearchParams.entries(): 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[Symbol.iterator]().

urlSearchParams.forEach(fn, thisArg?): void

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

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): string | null

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): string[]

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, value?): boolean

Checks if the URLSearchParams object contains key-value pair(s) based on name and an optional value argument.

If value is provided, returns true when name-value pair with same name and value exists.

If value is not provided, returns true if there is at least one name-value pair whose name is name.

urlSearchParams.keys(): Iterator

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

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

urlSearchParams.set(name, value): void

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 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

The total number of parameter entries.

urlSearchParams.sort(): void

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 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(): string

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

urlSearchParams.values(): Iterator

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

urlSearchParams[Symbol.iterator](): 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 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): string

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().

import url from 'node: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

const url = require('node: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): string

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().

import url from 'node: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

const url = require('node: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

url.fileURLToPath(url, options?): string

This function ensures the correct decodings of percent-encoded characters as well as ensuring a cross-platform valid absolute path string.

Security Considerations:

This function decodes percent-encoded characters, including encoded dot-segments (%2e as . and %2e%2e as ..), and then normalizes the resulting path. This means that encoded directory traversal sequences (such as %2e%2e) are decoded and processed as actual path traversal, even though encoded slashes (%2F, %5C) are correctly rejected.

Applications must not rely on fileURLToPath() alone to prevent directory traversal attacks. Always perform explicit path validation and security checks on the returned path value to ensure it remains within expected boundaries before using it for file system operations.

import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';

const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);

new URL('file:///C:/path/').pathname;      // Incorrect: /C:/path/
fileURLToPath('file:///C:/path/');         // Correct:   C:\path\ (Windows)

new URL('file://nas/foo.txt').pathname;    // Incorrect: /foo.txt
fileURLToPath('file://nas/foo.txt');       // Correct:   \\nas\foo.txt (Windows)

new URL('file:///你好.txt').pathname;      // Incorrect: /%E4%BD%A0%E5%A5%BD.txt
fileURLToPath('file:///你好.txt');         // Correct:   /你好.txt (POSIX)

new URL('file:///hello world').pathname;   // Incorrect: /hello%20world
fileURLToPath('file:///hello world');      // Correct:   /hello world (POSIX)

const { fileURLToPath } = require('node:url');
new URL('file:///C:/path/').pathname;      // Incorrect: /C:/path/
fileURLToPath('file:///C:/path/');         // Correct:   C:\path\ (Windows)

new URL('file://nas/foo.txt').pathname;    // Incorrect: /foo.txt
fileURLToPath('file://nas/foo.txt');       // Correct:   \\nas\foo.txt (Windows)

new URL('file:///你好.txt').pathname;      // Incorrect: /%E4%BD%A0%E5%A5%BD.txt
fileURLToPath('file:///你好.txt');         // Correct:   /你好.txt (POSIX)

new URL('file:///hello world').pathname;   // Incorrect: /hello%20world
fileURLToPath('file:///hello world');      // Correct:   /hello world (POSIX)

url.fileURLToPathBuffer(url, options?): Buffer

Like url.fileURLToPath(...) except that instead of returning a string representation of the path, a Buffer is returned. This conversion is helpful when the input URL contains percent-encoded segments that are not valid UTF-8 / Unicode sequences.

Security Considerations:

This function has the same security considerations as url.fileURLToPath(). It decodes percent-encoded characters, including encoded dot-segments (%2e as . and %2e%2e as ..), and normalizes the path. Applications must not rely on this function alone to prevent directory traversal attacks. Always perform explicit path validation on the returned buffer value before using it for file system operations.

url.format(URL, options?): string

Returns a customizable serialization of a URL String representation of a WHATWG URL object.

The URL object has both a toString() method and href property that return string serializations of the URL. These are not, however, customizable in any way. The url.format(URL[, options]) method allows for basic customization of the output.

import url from 'node:url';
const myURL = new URL('https://a:b@測試?abc#foo');

console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo

console.log(myURL.toString());
// Prints https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo

console.log(url.format(myURL, { fragment: false, unicode: true, auth: false }));
// Prints 'https://測試/?abc'

const url = require('node:url');
const myURL = new URL('https://a:b@測試?abc#foo');

console.log(myURL.href);
// Prints https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo

console.log(myURL.toString());
// Prints https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo

console.log(url.format(myURL, { fragment: false, unicode: true, auth: false }));
// Prints 'https://測試/?abc'

url.pathToFileURL(path, options?): URL

This function ensures that path is resolved absolutely, and that the URL control characters are correctly encoded when converting into a File URL.

import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';

new URL('/foo#1', 'file:');           // Incorrect: file:///foo#1
pathToFileURL('/foo#1');              // Correct:   file:///foo%231 (POSIX)

new URL('/some/path%.c', 'file:');    // Incorrect: file:///some/path%.c
pathToFileURL('/some/path%.c');       // Correct:   file:///some/path%25.c (POSIX)

const { pathToFileURL } = require('node:url');
new URL(__filename);                  // Incorrect: throws (POSIX)
new URL(__filename);                  // Incorrect: C:\... (Windows)
pathToFileURL(__filename);            // Correct:   file:///... (POSIX)
pathToFileURL(__filename);            // Correct:   file:///C:/... (Windows)

new URL('/foo#1', 'file:');           // Incorrect: file:///foo#1
pathToFileURL('/foo#1');              // Correct:   file:///foo%231 (POSIX)

new URL('/some/path%.c', 'file:');    // Incorrect: file:///some/path%.c
pathToFileURL('/some/path%.c');       // Correct:   file:///some/path%25.c (POSIX)

url.urlToHttpOptions(url): Object

This utility function converts a URL object into an ordinary options object as expected by the http.request() and https.request() APIs.

import { urlToHttpOptions } from 'node:url';
const myURL = new URL('https://a:b@測試?abc#foo');

console.log(urlToHttpOptions(myURL));
/*
{
  protocol: 'https:',
  hostname: 'xn--g6w251d',
  hash: '#foo',
  search: '?abc',
  pathname: '/',
  path: '/?abc',
  href: 'https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo',
  auth: 'a:b'
}
*/

const { urlToHttpOptions } = require('node:url');
const myURL = new URL('https://a:b@測試?abc#foo');

console.log(urlToHttpOptions(myURL));
/*
{
  protocol: 'https:',
  hostname: 'xn--g6w251d',
  hash: '#foo',
  search: '?abc',
  pathname: '/',
  path: '/?abc',
  href: 'https://a:b@xn--g6w251d/?abc#foo',
  auth: 'a:b'
}
*/