How do we update URL or query strings using javascript/jQuery without reloading the page?

Is there a way to update the URL programatically without reloading the page?

EDIT: I added something in the title in post .I just want to make it clear that I don't want to reload the page

Yes and no. All the common web browsers has a security measure to prevent that. The goal is to prevent people from creating replicas of websites, change the URL to make it look correct, and then be able to trick people and get their info.

However, some HTML5 compatible web browsers has implemented an History API that can be used for something similar to what you want:

if (history.pushState) {
    var newurl = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + window.location.pathname + '?myNewUrlQuery=1';
    window.history.pushState({path:newurl},'',newurl);
}

I tested, and it worked fine. It does not reload the page, but it only allows you to change the URL query. You would not be able to change the protocol or the host values.

For more information:

http://diveintohtml5.info/history.html

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history

Yes - document.location = "http://my.new.url.com"

You can also retrieve it the same way eg.

var myURL = document.location;
document.location = myURL + "?a=parameter";

The location object has a number of useful properties too:

hash	        Returns the anchor portion of a URL
host	        Returns the hostname and port of a URL
hostname	    Returns the hostname of a URL
href	        Returns the entire URL
pathname	    Returns the path name of a URL
port	        Returns the port number the server uses for a URL
protocol	    Returns the protocol of a URL
search	        Returns the query portion of a URL

EDIT: Setting the hash of the document.location shouldn't reload the page, just alter where on the page the focus is. So updating to #myId will scroll to the element with id="myId". If the id doesn't exist I believe nothing will happen? (Need to confirm on various browsers though)

EDIT2: To make it clear, not just in a comment: You can't update the whole URL with javascript without changing the page, this is a security restriction. Otherwise you could click on a link to a random page, crafted to look like gmail, and instantly change the URL to www.gmail.com and steal people's login details.
You can change the part after the domain on some browsers to cope with AJAX style things, but that's already been linked to by Osiris. What's more, you probably shouldn't do this, even if you could. The URL tells the user where he/she is on your site. If you change it without changing the page contents, it's becomes a little confusing.

You can use :

window.history.pushState('obj', 'newtitle', newUrlWithQueryString)

Use

> window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);

To update Url without reloading the page

 var url = window.location.href;
 var urlParts = url.split('?');
 if (urlParts.length > 0) {
     var baseUrl = urlParts[0];
     var queryString = urlParts[1];
                
     //update queryString in here...I have added a new string at the end in this example
     var updatedQueryString = queryString + 'this_is_the_new_url' 
               
     var updatedUri = baseUrl + '?' + updatedQueryString;
     window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);
 }

To remove Query string without reloading the page

var url = window.location.href;
if (url.indexOf("?") > 0) {
     var updatedUri = url.substring(0, url.indexOf("?"));
     window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);
}

Define a new URL object, assign it the current url, append your parameter(s) to that URL object and finally push it to your browsers state.

var url = new URL(window.location.href);
//var url = new URL(window.location.origin + window.location.pathname) <- flush existing parameters
url.searchParams.append("order", orderId);
window.history.pushState(null, null, url);

Yes

document.location is the normal way.

However document.location is effectively the same as window.location, except for window.location is a bit more supported in older browsers so may be the prefferable choice.

Check out this thread on SO for more info:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2430936/whats-the-difference-between-window-location-and-document-location-in-javascrip

Prefix URL changes with a hashtag to avoid a redirect.

This redirects

location.href += '&test='true';

This doesn't redirect

location.href += '#&test='true';

Plain javascript: document.location = 'http://www.google.com';;

This will cause a browser refresh though - consider using hashes if you're in need of having the URL updated to implement some kind of browsing history without reloading the page. You might want to look into jQuery.hashchange if this is the case.

You'll need to be more specific. What do you mean by 'update the URL'? It could mean automatically navigating to a different page, which is certainly possible.

If you want to just update the contents of the address bar without reloading the page, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/824349/modify-the-url-without-reloading-the-page/

Yes - document.location.hash for queries