How to Parse a URL in JavaScript

Create an "a" tag and set the href to the URL you want to parse:

var parser = document.createElement("a");
parser.href = "http://howchoo.com:8000/interests?query=1#bottom";

Now use the parser object to get the URL parts:

parser.protocol; // =>"http:"
parser.hostname; // => "howchoo.com"
parser.port; // =>"8000"
parser.pathname; // => "/interests"
parser.search; // => "?query=1"
parser.hash; // => "#bottom"
parser.host; // => "howchoo.com:8000"

This article expands on this idea to provide a little more functionality.