Free Online URL Parser: Extract Link Components

URL Parser: Split a Web Address into Its Parts

A web address looks like one long line, but it is made of parts, and each one has its own meaning. Paste an address, and this tool shows the parts one under another: the scheme, the host, the port, the path, the parameters of the query and the fragment. It works in your browser, so the address is not sent anywhere.

The parts of an address

https://[email protected]:8443/blog/post.html?utm_source=news&a=1#top
\_____/ \___/ \_____________/ \___/ \_____________/ \________________/ \_/
scheme  user      host        port       path             query       fragment

• Scheme says how to connect: https, http, ftp, mailto.
• User name and password are rare in modern links, and they are a trick of fake sites (see below).
• Host is the name of the site. Port is the door on the server; if it is the usual one (443 for https, 80 for http) it is not written.
• Path is the page or the file on the site. The tool shows it as written, decoded (%20 is a space), and cut into parts.
• Query is the list of name=value pairs after the question mark. The tool decodes them and puts them in a table, and a plus sign in the query is read as a space.
• Fragment is what follows the # sign (a place on the page). A browser does not send it to the server.

When it helps

• To see where a link really goes. In https://[email protected]/login the real host is example.org, because everything before the @ is a user name. Fake sites use this. The tool puts a warning on such an address.
• To read a long address. Tracking links can have dozens of parameters. The table shows each one, marks the repeated ones and the campaign tags (utm_source and others).
• To check what you build in code. Paste the address that your program makes, and see if the parts are where you expect them: the port, the encoded characters, the order of the parameters.
• To copy one part. Take the host, the path or the whole result as JSON for a test or a ticket.

Related tools

To encode or decode the %XX codes use the URL decoder and encoder. To add campaign tags to a link use the UTM link generator (a list of links: the bulk UTM builder). To take all the addresses out of a text use the URL extractor, to make the name of a page for an address the slug generator, and to see what a link answers (the code and the redirects) the HTTP status code checker. A domain with national letters is written for the DNS in a special form; the IDN Punycode converter shows it.

Limitations

• The tool reads the address, it does not open it: it does not check that the site exists or that the page answers.
• A host with national letters is shown in its ASCII form (xn--...), as a browser sends it.
• The host is not split into the domain and the zone, because that needs the list of public zones (co.uk is one zone). The parts of the host are shown as they are separated by dots.
• An address with no scheme is read as https. The address is not saved.