Get the current route using React Router

To get the current route with React Router, use the useLocation() hook. The useLocation() hook returns the current location object. We can use the pathname property of the location object to get the current route without the domain name. This location object also returns the hash and search of the current URL.

The useLocation hook is only available from react-router >= 5.1 and React >= 16.8.

The below example shows how to use useLocation hook to get the current route.

import React from 'react';
import {Route, Link, Routes, useLocation} from 'react-router-dom';


export default function App() {
  	return (		
		<div>
			<ul>
				<li>
					<Link to="/">Home</Link>
				</li>
				<li>
					<Link to="/products">Products</Link>
				</li>
			</ul>
			<Routes>		
				<Route path="/products" element={<Products />} />
				<Route path="/" element={<Home />} />
			</Routes>
		</div>	
	);
}

function Home() {
	const location = useLocation();
  	return <>
		<h2>Current Pathname {location.pathname}</h2>
		<p>Home Page</p>
	</>;
}

function Products() {
	const location = useLocation();
  	return <>
		<h2>Current Pathname {location.pathname}</h2>
		<p>Products Page</p>
	</>;
}

In the above example, we used useLocation() hook to get the current location object. 

The properties available in the location object are given below.

1. pathname - the current pathname of the current URL without domain name. e.g. /products
2. search - the current query string parameters of the current URL. e.g. ?page=10
3. hash - the current hash, e.g. #example.

To use useLocation() hook, we have to wrap the App component inside BrowserRouter component imported from react-router-dom as given below.

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client';
import App from './App';
import reportWebVitals from './reportWebVitals';
import {BrowserRouter} from 'react-router-dom';

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
root.render(
  	<React.StrictMode>
    	<BrowserRouter>
      		<App />
    	</BrowserRouter>
  	</React.StrictMode>
);

reportWebVitals();

To get the full URL with the domain name, we can use window.location.href. It will return a URL like ‘https:www.example.com/products?page=10’.

We can use of useParams hook to get an object of key/value pairs of URL dynamic parameters.

Current route using React Router in Class Component

We can get the current route inside the class component via the withRouter higher-order component. It will pass updated match, location, and history props to the wrapped component whenever it renders. 

The withRouter the higher-order component has been removed in react-router v6. Version 5.2.0 of react-router support withRouter. We can install the respective version with the command npm install [email protected]. The below example shows how to use withRouter in class component.

import React from "react";
import { withRouter } from "react-router";

// A simple component that shows the pathname of the current location
class Product extends React.Component {
  	render() {
    	return <div>You are now at {this.props.location.pathname}</div>;
  	}
}

// Create a new component that is "connected" (to borrow redux
// terminology) to the router.
const ProductComponent = withRouter(Product);

export default ProductComponent;

In the above code, we imported withRouter from react-router in the top. The react component Product was wrapped with withRouter higher-order component as given below. 

const ProductComponent = withRouter(Product);

Then ProductComponent was exported from the file.

Conclusion

The useLocation() hook return location object with information about the current URL. The pathname property of location object has a value of the current URL path without a domain name. We can use of withRouter higher component to get current URL details in class based components.