CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlweb
gator
gator

Reputation: 3523

Linking to pages in same directory; './page.php' vs. 'page.php'?

I always learned to link to pages on the same site I should do the below:

Directory Layout

/page1.php
/page2.php
/page3.php
/subdir/
       /page4.php
       /page5.php

On page1.php

<a href="./page2.php">Linking to page in same folder</a>
<a href="./subdir/page4.php">Linking to a page one folder deeper</a>

On page4.php

<a href="./page5.php">Linking to page in same folder</a>
<a href="../page3.php">Linking to a page one folder up</a>

However, substituting ./page2.php with just page2.php works as well.

<a href="page2.php">Linking to page in same folder</a>

How is it properly done/which is better? On my personal website, the statistics show a lot of incoming traffic from my own site: is this because I'm using ./ when I don't need to?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 54

Answers (1)

crimson_penguin
crimson_penguin

Reputation: 2778

It's the same. The . directory is explicitly "this directory", but if your href doesn't start with a / or a scheme (http:// for instance), then it is considered relative to the current directory anyway. It's up to you which to use. Personally I would leave out the ., since it serves no purpose, and in my opinion doesn't make it easier to read.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions