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8 June 2023

URI Vs URL | Difference | Comparison

One of the major misunderstandings is between URLs and URIs. Although both are used to identify resources, A URL is a specific kind of URI. Although not all URIs are URLs, all URLs are URIs. Let us check the difference between URI and URL to better understand this topic. 

What is URI?

Similar to URLs, URIs(Uniform Resources identifiers) are a series of characters that specify a resource's location, name, or both on the internet. It enables consistent resource identification. A URI can describe a URL, URN, or both as it is additionally classified as a locator, a name, or a prominence of the resources.

What is a URL?

The URL stands for uniform resource locator, it is frequently used to refer to a group of characters that point to a location. It is a fairly popular method for finding resources on the internet. By describing its network location or principal access mechanism, it offers a means of retrieving the presentation of the physical location.

URI Vs URL | Difference between URI and URL

  • The terms URI and URL stand for unified resource identifier and uniform resource locator, respectively.
  • Finding a resource and setting it apart from others using its name or location is the primary goal of URI. The location or address of the resource is the primary goal.
  • A URL is a subset of a URI, which is a superset that identifies a resource by URL, URN, or both, while a URI describes where a resource is located and how to access it.
  • In URI, the scheme may be anything like a protocol, specification, name, etc., The scheme must be a protocol like URL like HTTP, FTP, HTTPS, etc.
  • There is no protocol information given in URI, Protocol information is given in the URL.
  • Only web pages are found using the URL in URI, which is used in HTML, XML, and other files as well as the XSLT stylesheet language.
  • URI contains components like scheme, authority, query, path, fragment, component, etc, URL contains components such as protocol, domain, path, hash, query string, etc.
  • All URLs can be URIs, Not all URIs are URLs since a URI can be a name instead of a locator.
  • An example of a URI is ISBN 0-476-3557-4, An example of a URL would be https://hostinger.com.
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