Web/API/Location

The Location interface represents the location (URL) of the object it is linked to. Changes done on it are reflected on the object it relates to. Both the Document and Window interface have such a linked Location, accessible via Document.location and Window.location respectively.

Anatomy Of Location

HTML

<span id="href" title="href"><span id="origin title="origin"><span id="protocol" title="protocol">http:</span>//<span id="host" title="host"><span id="hostname" title="hostname">example.org</span>:<span id="port" title="port">8888</span></span></span><span id="pathname" title="pathname">/foo/bar</span><span id="search" title="search">?q=baz</span><span id="hash" title="hash">#bang</span></span>

CSS

html, body {height:100%;}
html {display:table; width:100%;}
body {display:table-cell; text-align:center; vertical-align:middle; font-family:georgia; font-size:230%; line-height:1em; white-space:nowrap;}

[title] {position:relative; display:inline-block; box-sizing:border-box; /*border-bottom:.5em solid;*/ line-height:2em; cursor:pointer;}

[title]:before {content:attr(title); font-family:monospace; position:absolute; top:100%; width:100%; left:50%; margin-left:-50%; font-size:40%; line-height:1.5; background:black;}
[title]:hover:before,
:target:before {background:black; color:yellow;}

[title] [title]:before {margin-top:1.5em;}
[title] [title] [title]:before {margin-top:3em;}
[title] [title] [title] [title]:before {margin-top:4.5em;}

[title]:hover,
:target {position:relative; z-index:1; outline:50em solid rgba(255,255,255,.8);}

JavaScript

[].forEach.call(document.querySelectorAll('[title][id]'), function (node) {
  node.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    e.stopPropagation();
    window.location.hash = '#' + e.target.getAttribute('id');
  });
});
[].forEach.call(document.querySelectorAll('[title]:not([id])'), function (node) {
  node.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    e.stopPropagation();
    window.location.hash = '';
  });
});

Result

Properties

Location.ancestorOrigins: Is a static DOMStringList containing, in reverse order, the origins of all ancestor browsing contexts of the document associated with the given Location object.
Location.href: Is a stringifier that returns a USVString containing the entire URL. If changed, the associated document navigates to the new page. It can be set from a different origin than the associated document.
Location.protocol: Is a USVString containing the protocol scheme of the URL, including the final ':'.
Location.host: Is a USVString containing the host, that is the hostname, a ':', and the port of the URL.
Location.hostname: Is a USVString containing the domain of the URL.
Location.port: Is a USVString containing the port number of the URL.
Location.pathname: Is a USVString containing an initial '/' followed by the path of the URL, not including the query string or fragment.
Location.search: Is a USVString containing a '?' followed by the parameters or "querystring" of the URL. Modern browsers provide URLSearchParams and URL.searchParams to make it easy to parse out the parameters from the querystring.
Location.hash: Is a USVString containing a '#' followed by the fragment identifier of the URL.
Location.origin Read only: Returns a USVString containing the canonical form of the origin of the specific location.

Methods

Location.assign(): Loads the resource at the URL provided in parameter.
Location.reload(): Reloads the current URL, like the Refresh button.
Location.replace(): Replaces the current resource with the one at the provided URL (redirects to the provided URL). The difference from the assign() method and setting the href property is that after using replace() the current page will not be saved in session History, meaning the user won't be able to use the back button to navigate to it.
Location.toString(): Returns a USVString containing the whole URL. It is a synonym for HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils.href, though it can't be used to modify the value.

Examples

// Create anchor element and use href property for the purpose of this example
// A more correct alternative is to browse to the URL and use document.location or window.location
var url = document.createElement('a');
url.href = 'https://developer.mozilla.org:8080/en-US/search?q=URL#search-results-close-container';
console.log(url.href);      // https://developer.mozilla.org:8080/en-US/search?q=URL#search-results-close-container
console.log(url.protocol);  // https:
console.log(url.host);      // developer.mozilla.org:8080
console.log(url.hostname);  // developer.mozilla.org
console.log(url.port);      // 8080
console.log(url.pathname);  // /en-US/search
console.log(url.search);    // ?q=URL
console.log(url.hash);      // #search-results-close-container
console.log(url.origin);    // https://developer.mozilla.org:8080

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'Location' in that specification.	Living Standard

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`Location`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`ancestorOrigins`	Chrome Full support 20	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 6	WebView Android Full support 4.4	Chrome Android Full support 25	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 6	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5
`assign`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5.5	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 3	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`hash`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`host`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`hostname`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`href`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`origin`	Chrome Full support 8	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 21 Notes' Full support 21 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 49, results for URL using the blob scheme incorrectly returned null.	IE Full support 11 Notes' Full support 11 Notes' Notes' Intranet sites are set to Compatibility View, which will emulate IE7 and omit `window.location.origin`.	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 5.1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 21 Notes' Full support 21 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 49, results for URL using the blob scheme incorrectly returned null.	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 5	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`password` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox No support 26 — 45	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support 26 — 45	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
`pathname`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 53, the `pathname` property returned wrong parts of the URL. For example, for a URL of http://z.com/x?a=true&b=false, `pathname` would return "/x?a=true&b=false" rather than "/x".	IE Full support 3 Notes' Full support 3 Notes' Notes' Internet Explorer does not provide the leading slash character in the `pathname` (`docs/Web/API/Location` instead of `/docs/Web/API/Location`).	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 53, the `pathname` property returned wrong parts of the URL. For example, for a URL of http://z.com/x?a=true&b=false, `pathname` would return "/x?a=true&b=false" rather than "/x".	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`port`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`protocol`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`reload`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12 Notes' Full support 12 Notes' Notes' Before Edge 79, if a page added to Trusted Sites contains a cross-origin iframe, then calling `reload()` from within the iframe reloads the trusted page (in other words, the top page reloads, not the iframe).	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5.5 Notes' Full support 5.5 Notes' Notes' *If a page added to Trusted Sites* contains a cross-origin iframe, then calling `reload()` from within the iframe reloads the trusted page (in other words, the top page reloads, not the iframe).**	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`replace`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5.5	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`search`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 53, the `search` property returned wrong parts of the URL. For example, for a URL of http://z.com/x?a=true&b=false, `search` would return "", rather than "?a=true&b=false".	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support ≤12.1	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 53, the `search` property returned wrong parts of the URL. For example, for a URL of http://z.com/x?a=true&b=false, `search` would return "", rather than "?a=true&b=false".	Opera Android Full support ≤12.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`toString`	Chrome Full support 52	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 22	IE Full support 11 Notes' Full support 11 Notes' Notes' Intranet sites are set to Compatibility View, which will emulate IE7 and omit `window.location.toString`.	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android Full support 52	Chrome Android Full support 52	Firefox Android Full support 22	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
`username` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox No support 26 — 45	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support 26 — 45	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.': Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.': Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.