Node.js url.parse() and pathname property

Question

I'm reading a getting started book on node.js called The Node Beginner Book and in the code below (given in the book) I don't understand the significance of the pathname property hanging off the parse method. So I would like to know what it is doing. The documentation for this method is not clear to me

var pathname = url.parse(request.url)**.pathname;** 

var http = require("http");
var url = require("url");
function start(route, handle) {
function onRequest(request, response) {
    var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname;         // I don't understand the pathname property
    console.log("Request for " + pathname + " received.");
    route(handle, pathname);
    response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
    response.write("Hello World");
    response.end();
}

sohel khalifa · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-05 20:37:41Z

64

pathname is the path section of the URL, that comes after the host and before the query, including the initial slash if present.

For example:

url.parse('http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17184791').pathname

will give you:

"/questions/17184791"

edited Feb 5, 2015 at 20:37

user3310334

answered Jun 19, 2013 at 7:11

sohel khalifa

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4 Comments

lucaswxp Over a year ago

What is the difference between path and patha

Jon Hoguet Over a year ago

those urls are actually h t t p://host/jon?v=1 but I don't know how to make SO happy

Peter-Paul van Gemerden Over a year ago

@JonHoguet: you can make SO happy with backticks: stackoverflow.com/editing-help#comment-formatting

adriaan Over a year ago

require('url').parse() is now deprecated. It's advised to use new URL() syntax now. It follows the WHATWG URL Standard. The horrible abbreviation stands for Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group.

bendytree · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-19 20:29:44Z

32

Here's an example:

var url = "https://u:[email protected]:777/a/b?c=d&e=f#g";
var parsedUrl = require('url').parse(url);
...
protocol  https:
auth      u:p
host      www.example.com:777
port      777
hostname  www.example.com
hash      #g
search    ?c=d&e=f
query     c=d&e=f
pathname  /a/b
path      /a/b?c=d&e=f
href      https://www.example.com:777/a/b?c=d&e=f#g

And another:

var url = "http://example.com/";
var parsedUrl = require('url').parse(url);
...
protocol http:
auth     null
host     example.com
port     null
hostname example.com
hash     null
search   null
query    null
pathname /
path     /
href     http://example.com/

Node.js docs: URL Objects

Update for NodeJS 11+

Starting in Node.js 11, url.parse was deprecated in favor of using the URL class which follows the WHATWG standard. Parsing is very similar but a few properties have changed:

const { URL } = require('url');
const url = "https://u:[email protected]:777/a/b?c=d&e=f#g";
const parsedUrl = new URL(url);
...
href         https://u:[email protected]:777/a/b?c=d&e=f#g
origin       https://www.example.com:777
protocol     https:
username     u
password     p
host         www.example.com:777
hostname     www.example.com
port         777
pathname     /a/b
search       ?c=d&e=f
searchParams { 'c' => 'd', 'e' => 'f' }
hash         #g

edited Feb 19, 2022 at 20:29

answered Sep 15, 2017 at 18:42

bendytree

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2 Comments

sezanzeb Over a year ago

is "https:" with a colon really the correct protocol string, instead of just "https"?

Ale Mar 2 at 19:55

@sezanzeb you can log it and verify.

Ashita Gaur · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-04 04:52:42Z

0

pathname is the part of URL section that comes after server and port. In,var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname; the request.url ,requests the url from the URL Section which is the set of the component - IP address of localhost , port no and file pathname.

Let understand it by an example suppose this is the url to be requested to server http://127.0.0.1:8082/ but for response to the client there should be an html file let it be index.html then http://127.0.0.1:8080/index.html and this html file is the .pathname to the url. So,In var pathname = url.parse(http://127.0.0.1:8080/index.html).pathname the pathname is index.html that is response to client.

answered Nov 4, 2018 at 4:52

Ashita Gaur

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Comments

Stephen Rauch · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-04 05:23:38Z

0

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

urlString: The URL string to parse.

parseQueryString : If true, the query property will always be set to an object returned by the querystring module's parse() method.

slashesDenoteHost : If true, the first token after the literal string // and preceding the next / will be interpreted as the host

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

Thus,

var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname;

will return the path name of the host followed by '/'

For example:

var pathname = url.parse(https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/url.html).pathname

will return:

/docs//latest/api/url.html

edited Nov 4, 2018 at 5:23

Stephen Rauch♦

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answered Jul 16, 2017 at 12:45

Harsh

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Comments

Krishnamoorthy Acharya · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-19 17:22:08Z

0

if the following url is redirected in nodejs "http://localhost:9090/page/edit?pageId=1&type=edit"

q.pathname will be "/page/edit" section of the URL. Please find other section of

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
 var q = url.parse(req.url, true);
 console.log(q.pathname);
 // /page/edit
 console.log(q.query['type'])
 // edit
 console.log(q)
 //will show below attached image
})

answered Apr 19, 2020 at 17:22

Krishnamoorthy Acharya

4,34440 silver badges35 bronze badges

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Node.js url.parse() and pathname property

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Update for NodeJS 11+

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