URL: pathname property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The pathname property of the URL interface represents a location in a hierarchical structure. It is a string constructed from a list of path segments, each of which is prefixed by a / character.

HTTPS, HTTP, or other URLs with hierarchical schemes (which the URL standard calls "special schemes") always have at least one (invisible) path segment: the empty string. The pathname value for such URLs will therefore always have a least one / character.

For non-hierarchical schemes, if the URL has no path segments, the value of its pathname property will be the empty string.

Value

A string.

Examples

Pathname with invisible segment

The URL below has just one path segment, the empty string. The pathname value is constructed by prefixing a / character to the empty string.

const url = new URL("https://developer.mozilla.org");
console.log(url.pathname); // Logs "/"

Pathname with query parameters

The example below shows the pathname for an HTTPS URL with query parameters.

const url = new URL(
  "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/URL/pathname?q=value",
);
console.log(url.pathname); // Logs "/en-US/docs/Web/API/URL/pathname"

The query parameters do not form part of the path. Note that some systems use the ; and = characters to delimit parameters and parameter values applicable to a path segment. For example, with the URL https://example.org/users;id=42/tasks;state=open?sort=modified, a system might extract and use the path segment parameters id=42 and state=open from the path segments users;id=42 and tasks;state=open.

Pathname with a slug

Some systems define the term slug to mean the final segment of a non-empty path if it identifies a page in human-readable keywords. For example, the URL below has the slug this-that-other-outre-collection.

const url = new URL(
  "https://example.org/articles/this-that-other-outre-collection",
);
console.log(url.pathname); // Logs "/articles/this-that-other-outre-collection"

Specifications

Specification
URL Standard # dom-url-pathname

Browser compatibility

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