URLs vs URI

These two terms — URI and URL — are often used together, but there is a key difference between them.

A URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is a general identifier for a resource. It identifies a resource but does not necessarily tell you how to locate it. There are two main types of URIs:

• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) — identifies a resource and provides the means to locate it.
• URN (Uniform Resource Name) — identifies a resource only, without giving location details.

Think of it this way: a URI is like a person’s name or ID only, while a URL is like a person’s full information(name, ID), including their address.

For example, consider this URL:

**https://hello-dummy.cat.xyz/api/cat/v3/cat-details/6582af1ee626c13db73abbc4**

Breaking it down:

• https://hello-dummy.cat.xyz – This is the base location where the data resides. By itself, this cannot be considered a full URL because it does not specify the identity of the resource.
• /api/cat/v3/cat-details/6582af1ee626c13db73abbc4 – This part identifies the specific resource at the base location. Conceptually, this can be seen as a URI or even a URN.
• To be called a complete URL both URI and base url should combine to identify the resouce at the particular location

Key takeaway: All URLs are URIs, but not all URIs are URLs.

Now the question arise which URIs can be considered URL in some case?

if a URI contain enough information to locate the particular resouce then it can be considered as url