Skip to main content
Skip to main content

Functions for Working with URLs

Note

The functions mentioned in this section are optimized for maximum performance and for the most part do not follow the RFC-3986 standard. Functions which implement RFC-3986 have RFC appended to their function name and are generally slower.

You can generally use the non-RFC function variants when working with publicly registered domains that contain neither user strings nor @ symbols. The table below details which symbols in a URL can (✔) or cannot (✗) be parsed by the respective RFC and non-RFC variants:

Symbolnon-RFCRFC
' '✗✗
\t✗✗
<✗✗
>✗✗
%✗✔*
{✗✗
}✗✗
|✗✗
\\✗✗
^✗✗
~✗✔*
[✗✗
]✗✔
;✗✔*
=✗✔*
&✗✔*

symbols marked * are sub-delimiters in RFC 3986 and allowed for user info following the @ symbol.

Functions that Extract Parts of a URL​

If the relevant part isn't present in a URL, an empty string is returned.

protocol​

Extracts the protocol from a URL.

Examples of typical returned values: http, https, ftp, mailto, tel, magnet.

domain​

Extracts the hostname from a URL.

Syntax

Arguments

The URL can be specified with or without a protocol. Examples:

For these examples, the domain function returns the following results:

Returned values

  • Host name if the input string can be parsed as a URL, otherwise an empty string. String.

Example

domainRFC​

Extracts the hostname from a URL. Similar to domain, but RFC 3986 conformant.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned values

  • Host name if the input string can be parsed as a URL, otherwise an empty string. String.

Example

domainWithoutWWW​

Returns the domain without leading www. if present.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned values

  • Domain name if the input string can be parsed as a URL (without leading www.), otherwise an empty string. String.

Example

domainWithoutWWWRFC​

Returns the domain without leading www. if present. Similar to domainWithoutWWW but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned values

  • Domain name if the input string can be parsed as a URL (without leading www.), otherwise an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

topLevelDomain​

Extracts the the top-level domain from a URL.

Arguments

Note

The URL can be specified with or without a protocol. Examples:

Returned values

  • Domain name if the input string can be parsed as a URL. Otherwise, an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

topLevelDomainRFC​

Extracts the the top-level domain from a URL. Similar to topLevelDomain, but conforms to RFC 3986.

Arguments

Note

The URL can be specified with or without a protocol. Examples:

Returned values

  • Domain name if the input string can be parsed as a URL. Otherwise, an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

firstSignificantSubdomain​

Returns the "first significant subdomain". The first significant subdomain is a second-level domain for com, net, org, or co, otherwise it is a third-level domain. For example, firstSignificantSubdomain ('https://news.clickhouse.com/') = 'clickhouse', firstSignificantSubdomain ('https://news.clickhouse.com.tr/') = 'clickhouse'. The list of "insignificant" second-level domains and other implementation details may change in the future.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • The first significant subdomain. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

firstSignificantSubdomainRFC​

Returns the "first significant subdomain". The first significant subdomain is a second-level domain for com, net, org, or co, otherwise it is a third-level domain. For example, firstSignificantSubdomain ('https://news.clickhouse.com/') = 'clickhouse', firstSignificantSubdomain ('https://news.clickhouse.com.tr/') = 'clickhouse'. The list of "insignificant" second-level domains and other implementation details may change in the future. Similar to firstSignficantSubdomain but conforms to RFC 1034.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • The first significant subdomain. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomain​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the "first significant subdomain".

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain if possible, otherwise returns an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainRFC​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the "first significant subdomain". Similar to cutToFirstSignificantSubdomain but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain if possible, otherwise returns an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainWithWWW​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the "first significant subdomain", without stripping www.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain (with www) if possible, otherwise returns an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainWithWWWRFC​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the "first significant subdomain", without stripping www. Similar to cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainWithWWW but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain (with "www") if possible, otherwise returns an empty string. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustom​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain. Accepts custom TLD list name. This function can be useful if you need a fresh TLD list or if you have a custom list.

Configuration example

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

See Also

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustomRFC​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain. Accepts custom TLD list name. This function can be useful if you need a fresh TLD list or if you have a custom list. Similar to cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustom but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain. String.

See Also

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustomWithWWW​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain without stripping www. Accepts custom TLD list name. It can be useful if you need a fresh TLD list or if you have a custom list.

Configuration example

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain without stripping www. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

See Also

cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustomWithWWWRFC​

Returns the part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain without stripping www. Accepts custom TLD list name. It can be useful if you need a fresh TLD list or if you have a custom list. Similar to cutToFirstSignificantSubdomainCustomWithWWW but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • Part of the domain that includes top-level subdomains up to the first significant subdomain without stripping www. String.

See Also

firstSignificantSubdomainCustom​

Returns the first significant subdomain. Accepts customs TLD list name. Can be useful if you need fresh TLD list or you have custom.

Configuration example:

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • First significant subdomain. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

See Also

firstSignificantSubdomainCustomRFC​

Returns the first significant subdomain. Accepts customs TLD list name. Can be useful if you need fresh TLD list or you have custom. Similar to firstSignificantSubdomainCustom but conforms to RFC 3986.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • tld — Custom TLD list name. String.

Returned value

  • First significant subdomain. String.

See Also

port​

Returns the port or default_port if the URL contains no port or cannot be parsed.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • default_port — The default port number to be returned. UInt16.

Returned value

  • Port or the default port if there is no port in the URL or in case of a validation error. UInt16.

Example

Query:

Result:

portRFC​

Returns the port or default_port if the URL contains no port or cannot be parsed. Similar to port, but RFC 3986 conformant.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL. String.
  • default_port — The default port number to be returned. UInt16.

Returned value

  • Port or the default port if there is no port in the URL or in case of a validation error. UInt16.

Example

Query:

Result:

path​

Returns the path without query string.

Example: /top/news.html.

pathFull​

The same as above, but including query string and fragment.

Example: /top/news.html?page=2#comments.

protocol​

Extracts the protocol from a URL.

Syntax

Arguments

  • url — URL to extract protocol from. String.

Returned value

  • Protocol, or an empty string if it cannot be determined. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

queryString​

Returns the query string without the initial question mark, # and everything after #.

Example: page=1&lr=213.

fragment​

Returns the fragment identifier without the initial hash symbol.

queryStringAndFragment​

Returns the query string and fragment identifier.

Example: page=1#29390.

extractURLParameter(url, name)​

Returns the value of the name parameter in the URL, if present, otherwise an empty string is returned. If there are multiple parameters with this name, the first occurrence is returned. The function assumes that the parameter in the url parameter is encoded in the same way as in the name argument.

extractURLParameters(url)​

Returns an array of name=value strings corresponding to the URL parameters. The values are not decoded.

extractURLParameterNames(url)​

Returns an array of name strings corresponding to the names of URL parameters. The values are not decoded.

URLHierarchy(url)​

Returns an array containing the URL, truncated at the end by the symbols /,? in the path and query-string. Consecutive separator characters are counted as one. The cut is made in the position after all the consecutive separator characters.

URLPathHierarchy(url)​

The same as above, but without the protocol and host in the result. The / element (root) is not included.

encodeURLComponent(url)​

Returns the encoded URL.

Example:

decodeURLComponent(url)​

Returns the decoded URL.

Example:

encodeURLFormComponent(url)​

Returns the encoded URL. Follows rfc-1866, space( ) is encoded as plus(+).

Example:

decodeURLFormComponent(url)​

Returns the decoded URL. Follows rfc-1866, plain plus(+) is decoded as space( ).

Example:

netloc​

Extracts network locality (username:password@host:port) from a URL.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • username:password@host:port. String.

Example

Query:

Result:

Functions that remove part of a URL​

If the URL does not have anything similar, the URL remains unchanged.

cutWWW​

Removes leading www. (if present) from the URL's domain.

cutQueryString​

Removes query string, including the question mark.

cutFragment​

Removes the fragment identifier, including the number sign.

cutQueryStringAndFragment​

Removes the query string and fragment identifier, including the question mark and number sign.

cutURLParameter(url, name)​

Removes the name parameter from a URL, if present. This function does not encode or decode characters in parameter names, e.g. Client ID and Client%20ID are treated as different parameter names.

Syntax

Arguments

Returned value

  • url with name URL parameter removed. String.

Example

Query:

Result: