Softonic

URL Parser

Step 1 / 2
Next

When a webhook misfires or a tracking link carries the wrong payload, the fastest fix is to break the URL apart and read each piece. Paste any URL and this parser splits it into its parts: scheme, username and password, host, port, path, query string and fragment, then expands the query into a labelled table of key and value pairs. It runs on our server with PHP’s standard URL parser, so what you see is exactly how a PHP backend would read the same link.

How to parse a URL

  1. 1

    Paste the URL

    Drop in any URL, absolute or relative. There is nothing to click; it parses as you type.

  2. 2

    Read the components

    The table fills with the scheme, host, port, user, password, path, query and fragment it finds. Empty parts show a dash.

  3. 3

    Expand the query

    Every `key=value` pair is listed on its own row, with percent-encoding and `+` decoded to real characters.

  4. 4

    Copy the parameters

    The copy button grabs every query parameter at once as `key=value` lines, ready to paste into an API client.

Anatomy of a URL

Take this URL: https://user:pass@api.example.com:8443/v1/users?page=2&sort=name#profile. The parser breaks it into:

Component Value
scheme https
user user
pass pass
host api.example.com
port 8443
path /v1/users
query page=2&sort=name
fragment profile

The query string is then expanded into its own table: page = 2 and sort = name.

How the query string is read

  • Values are percent-decoded and + becomes a space, so q=hello%20world and q=hello+world both read as hello world.
  • A pair is split on its first =, so token=a=b=c keeps a=b=c as the value.
  • Repeated keys keep only the last value: ?id=1&id=2 reports id = 2. To keep every value, use array syntax id[]=1&id[]=2, which is shown as a list.
  • Bracketed keys such as filter[status]=open become a nested structure, displayed as JSON.

Ports, paths and fragments

  • The port is shown exactly as written. Nothing is added or removed, so :443 appears as 443, and a URL with no port leaves the row blank.
  • A trailing slash changes the path: https://a.com has an empty path, while https://a.com/ has the path /.
  • The fragment (after #) is a browser-only value used to jump to an anchor or drive a client-side router. It never reaches the server, so anything a backend must read belongs in the query string.
  • The host is returned exactly as typed; this parser does not convert internationalized (non-ASCII) domains to or from Punycode.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. A relative link such as /v1/users?ref=nav has no scheme or host, so those rows stay empty while the path and query are still filled in. Only a badly malformed URL, for example one with a non-numeric port like http://a.com:port, is rejected outright.

Only the last value is kept, so ?id=1&id=2 reports id = 2, exactly as a PHP backend would read it. If you need every value, use array syntax id[]=1&id[]=2 and they appear as a list.

The parser reports the port precisely as written. It never removes a default port or adds a missing one, so a URL without a port shows a blank row and https://a.com:443 shows 443.

The URL is sent to our server to be parsed, since this tool runs server-side rather than only in your browser. We do not save the URLs themselves; we record only an anonymous count that the parser ran.

Related Tools

ASCII Table Reference

Full ASCII table from 0 to 127 with decimal, hex, octal, binary, standard names and HTML numeric-reference notation, including NUL, LF and DEL.

Color Palette Generator

Generate monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic or tetradic color palettes from a base HEX color and export copy-ready CSS variables.

FPS Counter

Measure browser FPS with requestAnimationFrame, smoothing, min/max frame rate, warnings and an optional graph. Runs locally with no upload or API.

HTML Character Reference

Searchable list of HTML entities, their named and numeric codes, and a one-click copy for special characters and symbols.

Color Wheel Explorer

Explore the colour wheel interactively. Rotate harmonies, compare HSL vs RYB, spot complementary and triadic pairs in real time.

Keyboard Shortcut Reference

Search documented default keyboard shortcuts for VS Code, Chrome and Bash with GNU Readline on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Tool available in other languages