Encoding of window.location.hash

javascript html url encoding fragment-identifier
Michael picture Michael · Nov 9, 2009 · Viewed 17.7k times · Source

Does window.location.hash contain the encoded or decoded representation of the url part?

When I open the same url (http://localhost/something/#%C3%BC where %C3%BCtranslates to ü) in Firefox 3.5 and Internet Explorer 8, I get different values for document.location.hash:

  • IE8: #%C3%BC
  • FF3.5: #ü

Is there a way to get one variant in both browsers?

Answer

Eli Grey picture Eli Grey · Nov 10, 2009

Unfortunately, this is a bug in Firefox as it decodes location.hash an extra time when it is accessed. For example, try this in Firefox:

location.hash = "#%30";
location.hash === "#0"; // This is wrong, it should be "#%30"

The only cross-browser solution is to just use (location.href.split("#")[1] || "") instead for getting the hash. Setting the hash using location.hash seems to work correctly for all browsers that support location.hash though.

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