# Route url and path

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/route-url-and-path/145304>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 7, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/route-url-and-path/145304 "2008-08-07T19:42:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@joel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joel)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/route-url-and-path/145304/1 "2008-08-07T19:42:24Z")

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Hello All,

what s the difference when using routes with url and path, like  
forum\_path(something) or forum\_url(something)

Joel

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@joel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joel)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 9:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/route-url-and-path/145304/2 "2008-08-08T09:19:44Z")

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On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 7:41 PM, joel [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> what s the difference when using routes with url and path, like  
> forum\_path(something) or forum\_url(something)

The difference is that url will give you a complete url including  
the hostname:

items\_url expands to [http://localhost:3000/items](http://localhost:3000/items)

and path:

items\_path expands to ‘/items’

Franz