277456 - document.location.hash is URI-decoded, .href isn't

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 483304

(Core :: DOM: Core & HTML, defect)

Description

[Phil Endecott]

If I visit foo.html#abc%20def, should the %20 be decoded to a space when I read
from document.location?  It seems that if I read from document.location.href I
see the %20, while reading from document.location.hash I see a space.  Internet
Explorer always returns %20.

As far as I can see this is not defined by any of the DOM specifications yet.  I
think I would prefer to get %20 in .hash since that is consistent with both the
other browser and .href.  Any thoughts?

I will attach a simple demo.

Appologies if this is already known.  This is with Firefox 1.0.

Comment 1

[Phil Endecott]

Attachment: Prints out .href and .hash

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

See discussion in bug 135309.  In short, IE sometimes unescapes and sometimes
doesn't, which means that for identical URIs it can show different location.hash
values.  We always unescape.

Comment 3

[Phil Endecott]

Boris - sorry, can't think how I failed to find that bug.  Must improve
Bugzilla-searching skills.

For the benefit of anyone who has the same problem: in summary, don't use
location.hash in multi-browser code.  I use this:

function document_location_hash() {
  var hr=document.location.href;
  var p=hr.indexOf('#');
  if (p>=0) {
    return hr.substr(p+1);
  } else {
    return "";
  }
}