URL Parser / Query String Splitter

  1. Web Resources
  2. URL Parser

This simple tool lets you parse a URL into its individual components, i.e scheme, protocol, username, password, hostname, port, domain, subdomain, tld, path, query string, hash, etc. It also splits the query string into a human readable format and takes of decoding the parameters.

This tool uses the URI.js library developed by Rodney Rhem

To learn more about the structure of a URL, check out the URLs Explained section of this page.

URLs Explained

What's a URI?

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are used to identify 'names' or 'resources'. They come in 2 varieties: URNs and URLs. In fact, a URI can be both a name and a locator!

What's a URL?

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) provide a way to locate a resource using a specific scheme, most often but not limited to HTTP. Just think of a URL as an address to a resource, and the scheme as a specification of how to get there.

What's a URN?

Uniform Resource Names are identifiers for resources. They are location independent and make use of the urn: scheme.

What's the syntax of a URI?

scheme:scheme-specific-part?query#fragment

Examples:

  • ftp://ftp.is.co.za/rfc/rfc1808.txt
  • http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt
  • ldap://[2001:db8::7]/c=GB?objectClass?one
  • news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix
  • tel:+1-816-555-1212
  • telnet://192.0.2.16:80/
  • urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2

What's the syntax of a URL?

scheme://username:[email protected]:port/path/file-name.suffix?query-string#hash

Examples:

  • http://www.google.com
  • http://foo:[email protected]/very/long/path.html?p1=v1&p2=v2#more-details
  • https://secured.com:443
  • ftp://ftp.bogus.com/~some/path/to/a/file.txt

What's the syntax of a URN?

urn:namespame-identifier:namespace-specific-string

Examples from Wikipedia:

  • urn:isbn:0451450523
  • urn:ietf:rfc:2648
  • urn:uuid:6e8bc430-9c3a-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66

What's the 'userinfo' in a URL?

The userinfo part of a URL is made of the username and/or the password. They are optional and used for authentication purposes. The userinfo has the format username:password and is followed by the @ character and the host. The password is optional, often resulting in a prompt by the user interface for a password.

Examples:

  • ftp://username:password@host.com/
  • ftp://username@host.com/

What's the 'authority' in a URL?

The authority of a URL is made of the userinfo, the hostname and the port. The userinfo and port are optional. When the port is not present, a default port for the specific scheme is assumed. For example port 80 for http or 443 for https.

Examples:

What's the 'fragment' in a URL?

Also known as a hash, the fragment is a pointer to a secondary resource with the first resource. It follows the # character.

Examples:

  • http://www.foo.bar/?listings.html#section-2

What's the 'path' in a URL?

The path of a URL is made of segments that represent a structured hierarchy. Each segment is separated by a the / character. You can think of a path as a directory structure.

Examples:

  • http://www.foo.bar/segment1/segment2/some-resource.html
  • http://www.foo.bar/image-2.html?w=100&h=50
  • ftp://ftp.foo.bar/~john/doe?w=100&h=50

What's the 'query string' in a URL?

The query contains extra information that is usually in the key-pair format. Each pair is usually separated by an ampersand & character. It follows the ? character.

Examples:

  • http://www.foo.bar/image.jpg?height=150&width=100
  • https://www.secured.com:443/resource.html?id=6e8bc430-9c3a-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66#some-header