navigateByUrl

routerLink directive as used like this:

<a [routerLink]="/inbox/33/messages/44">Open Message 44</a>

is just a wrapper around imperative navigation using router and its navigateByUrl method:

router.navigateByUrl('/inbox/33/messages/44')

as can be seen from the sources:

export class RouterLink {  ...  @HostListener('click')  onClick(): boolean {    ...    this.router.navigateByUrl(this.urlTree, extras);    return true;  }

So wherever you need to navigate a user to another route, just inject the router and use navigateByUrl method:

class MyComponent {   constructor(router: Router) {      this.router.navigateByUrl(...);   }}

navigate

There's another method on the router that you can use - navigate:

router.navigate(['/inbox/33/messages/44'])

difference between the two

Using router.navigateByUrl is similar to changing the location bar directly–we are providing the “whole” new URL. Whereas router.navigate creates a new URL by applying an array of passed-in commands, a patch, to the current URL.

To see the difference clearly, imagine that the current URL is '/inbox/11/messages/22(popup:compose)'.

With this URL, calling router.navigateByUrl('/inbox/33/messages/44') will result in '/inbox/33/messages/44'. But calling it with router.navigate(['/inbox/33/messages/44']) will result in '/inbox/33/messages/44(popup:compose)'.

Read more in the official docs.

router.navigate vs router.navigateByUrl

router.navigate is just a convenience method that wraps router.navigateByUrl, it boils down to:

navigate(commands: any[], extras) {    return router.navigateByUrl(router.createUrlTree(commands, extras), extras);}

As mentioned in other answers router.navigateByUrl will only accept absolute URLs:

// This will workrouter.navigateByUrl("http://localhost/team/33/user/11")// This WON'T work even though relativeTo parameter is in the signaturerouter.navigateByUrl("../22", {relativeTo: route})

All the relative calculations are done by router.createUrlTree and router.navigate. Array syntax is used to treat every array element as a URL modifying "command". E.g. ".." - go up, "path" - go down, {expand: true} - add query param, etc.. You can use it like this:

// create /team/33/user/11router.navigate(['/team', 33, 'user', 11]);// assuming the current url is `/team/33/user/11` and the route points to `user/11`// navigate to /team/33/user/11/detailsrouter.navigate(['details'], {relativeTo: route});// navigate to /team/33/user/22router.navigate(['../22'], {relativeTo: route});// navigate to /team/44/user/22router.navigate(['../../team/44/user/22'], {relativeTo: route});

That {relativeTo: route} parameter is important as that's what router will use as the root for relative operations.

Get it through your component's constructor:

  // In my-awesome.component.ts:  constructor(private route: ActivatedRoute, private router: Router) {}    // Example call  onNavigateClick() {    // Navigates to a parent component    this.router.navigate([..], { relativeTo: this.route })  }

routerLink directive

Nicest thing about this directive is that it will retrieve the ActivatedRoute for you. Under the hood it's using already familiar:

router.navigateByUrl(router.createUrlTree(commands, { relativeTo: route }), { relativeTo: route });

Following variants will produce identical result:

[routerLink]="['../..']"// if the string parameter is passed it will be wrapped into an arrayrouterLink="../.."

In addition to the provided answer, there are more details to navigate. From the function's comments:

/** * Navigate based on the provided array of commands and a starting point. * If no starting route is provided, the navigation is absolute. * * Returns a promise that: * - resolves to 'true' when navigation succeeds, * - resolves to 'false' when navigation fails, * - is rejected when an error happens. * * ### Usage * * ``` * router.navigate(['team', 33, 'user', 11], {relativeTo: route}); * * // Navigate without updating the URL * router.navigate(['team', 33, 'user', 11], {relativeTo: route, skipLocationChange: true}); * ``` * * In opposite to `navigateByUrl`, `navigate` always takes a delta that is applied to the current * URL. */

The Router Guide has more details on programmatic navigation.