We can make the browser go back one URL in the browser history, as if the user has pressed the Backspace key or clicked the browser's back button.
history.back();
To make the browser go forward in the history, as if the user has pressed alt-right-arrow or clicked the browser's forward button...
history.forward();
In both cases, if there is no URL in the history that would make the move possible, the browser does nothing. We can tell the browser how many steps in the history you want to take, using negative
numbers to go back and positive numbers to go forward. The following statement is the equivalent of pressing the Backspace key three times.
history.go(-3);
The following statement sends the browser forward two URLs.
history.go(2);
If a negative number inside the parentheses is greater than the number of previous URLs in the history, the browser will do nothing. If a positive number inside the parentheses is greater than the number of forward URLs in the history, the browser will do nothing. When you want to go forward or backward just one step, you can choose either method..
history.back();
...is the same as...
history.go(-1);
And...
history.forward();
...is the same as...
history.go(1);
There is no reliable way to find out how many items, backward and forward, there are in the history.
If the user clicked a link to get to the current page, you can get the URL of the page where the link was clicked.
var whereUserCameFrom = document.referrer;
The statement above assigns the URL where the link was clicked to the variable whereUserCameFrom. However, this works only if a link was clicked, including a link in a search result. If the user got to your page through a bookmark or by entering your URL in the address bar, the result of document.referrer will be an empty string, "".
