Combine URL paths with path.Join() - url

Question

Is there a way in Go to combine URL paths similarly as we can do with filepaths using path.Join()?
For example see e.g. Combine absolute path and relative path to get a new absolute path.
When I use path.Join("http://foo", "bar"), I get http:/foo/bar.
See in Golang Playground.

Answer 1

The function path.Join expects a path, not a URL. Parse the URL to get a path and join with that path:
u, err := url.Parse("http://foo")
if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
u.Path = path.Join(u.Path, "bar.html")
s := u.String()
fmt.Println(s) // prints http://foo/bar.html
Use the url.JoinPath function in Go 1.19 or later:
s, err := url.JoinPath("http://foo", "bar.html")
if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
fmt.Println(s) // prints http://foo/bar.html
Use ResolveReference if you are resolving a URI reference from a base URL. This operation is different from a simple path join: an absolute path in the reference replaces the entire base path; the base path is trimmed back to the last slash before the join operation.
base, err := url.Parse("http://foo/quux.html")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
ref, err := url.Parse("bar.html")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
u := base.ResolveReference(ref)
fmt.Println(u.String()) // prints http://foo/bar.html
Notice how quux.html in the base URL does not appear in the resolved URL.

Answer 2

ResolveReference() in net/url package
The accepted answer will not work for relative url paths containing file endings like .html or .img. The ResolveReference() function is the correct way to join url paths in go.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"net/url"
)
func main() {
u, err := url.Parse("../../..//search?q=dotnet")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
base, err := url.Parse("http://example.com/directory/")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(base.ResolveReference(u))
}

Answer 3

A simple approach to this would be to trim the /'s you don't want and join. Here is an example func
func JoinURL(base string, paths ...string) string {
p := path.Join(paths...)
return fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", strings.TrimRight(base, "/"), strings.TrimLeft(p, "/"))
}
Usage would be
b := "http://my.domain.com/api/"
u := JoinURL(b, "/foo", "bar/", "baz")
fmt.Println(u)
This removes the need for checking/returning errors

Answer 4

In 1.19 there will be a new function in the standard library that solves this very neatly.
u, err := url.JoinPath("http://host/foo", "bar/")
https://go.dev/play/p/g422ockBq0q?v=gotip

Answer 5

To join a URL with another URL or a path, there is URL.Parse():
func (u *URL) Parse(ref string) (*URL, error)
Parse parses a URL in the context of the receiver. The provided URL
may be relative or absolute. Parse returns nil, err on parse failure,
otherwise its return value is the same as ResolveReference.
func TestURLParse(t *testing.T) {
baseURL, _ := url.Parse("http://foo/a/b/c")
url1, _ := baseURL.Parse("d/e")
require.Equal(t, "http://foo/a/b/d/e", url1.String())
url2, _ := baseURL.Parse("../d/e")
require.Equal(t, "http://foo/a/d/e", url2.String())
url3, _ := baseURL.Parse("/d/e")
require.Equal(t, "http://foo/d/e", url3.String())
}

Answer 6

I wrote this utility function that works for my purposes:
func Join(basePath string, paths ...string) (*url.URL, error) {
u, err := url.Parse(basePath)
if err != nil {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid url")
}
p2 := append([]string{u.Path}, paths...)
result := path.Join(p2...)
u.Path = result
return u, nil
}
https://play.golang.org/p/-QNVvyzacMM