How to make a redirect in PHP?

Last Updated : 03 May, 2025

Redirection from one page to another in PHP is commonly achieved using the following two ways:
Using Header Function in PHP:
The header() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to send the raw HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) header to the client.
Syntax:

header( $header, $replace, $http_response_code )

Parameters: This function accepts three parameters as mentioned above and described below:

$header: This parameter is used to hold the header string.
$replace: This parameter is used to hold the replace parameter which indicates the header should replace a previous similar header, or add a second header of the same type. It is optional parameter.
$http_response_code: This parameter hold the HTTP response code.

Below program illustrates the header() function in PHP:
Program:

php

<?php

// Redirect browser
header("Location: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org");

exit;
?>

Note: The die() or exit() function after header is mandatory. If die() or exit() is not put after the header('Location: ....') then script may continue resulting in unexpected behavior. For example, result in content being disclosed that actually wanted to prevent with the redirect (HTTP 301).
Using JavaScript via PHP:
The windows.location object in JavaScript is used to get the current page address(URL) and to redirect the browser to a new page. The window.location object contains the crucial information about a page such as hostname, href, pathname, port etc.
Example:

html

<html>
    <head>
        <title>window.location function</title>
    </head>
    <body>
    <p id="demo"></p>

    <script>
        document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = 
            "URL: " + window.location.href +"</br>";
        document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = 
        document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML +
        "Hostname: " + window.location.hostname + "</br>";
        document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = 
        document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML +
        "Protocol: " + window.location.protocol + "</br>";
    </script>
    </body>
</html>

Output:

URL: https://write.geeksforgeeks.org/improve-post/6023138/
Hostname: write.geeksforgeeks.org
Protocol: https:

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.