When working on a web page, you may come across links that include a hashtag (#) in the href attribute. It’s important to understand the purpose of this hashtag and how it affects the link behavior.

  1. Placeholder Link:

    <a href="#">features</a>

    In this case, the href="#" serves as a placeholder. It indicates that the link doesn’t point to any specific location on the page or external URL. It is often used when the application is still in progress, and the actual destination will be added later.

  2. Link to a Point on the Same Page:

    <a href="#features">features</a>

    When a link includes a hashtag followed by an identifier (e.g., #features), it references a specific point within the same page. To create this reference, you need to have an element with a corresponding id attribute:

    <a id="features">Features</a>

    Alternatively, you can use an empty element with just the id attribute:

    <a id="features"></a>

    Clicking on the “features” link will scroll the page to the element with the matching id.

  3. Link to a Separate URL:

    <a href="/features">features</a>

    In contrast to the previous scenarios, this type of link points to a separate URL. When clicked, the browser will navigate to the specified URL, which can be a different page on the website or an external page.

  4. Combination of Both:

    <a href="/features#first">features</a>

    This type of link combines the previous cases. Clicking on it will open the “/features” URL and scroll to the element with the id attribute set to “first”.

Understanding the usage of hashtags in links allows you to create more dynamic web experiences, whether it’s anchoring to specific sections within the same page or linking to different parts of your website.