URL's getRef() method is supposed to get the
part of the URL that follows the # sign. For example, in
the following URL

http://java.sun.com/tutoria/index.html#DOWNLOADING

getRef() should return the string

DOWNLOADING

getRef() returns different values depending on the constructor
that you use to create the URL. Here's small test program
that illustrates the problem:

import java.net.*;

class ParseBug {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        URL aURL = null;
        URL bURL = null;
        URL cURL = null;
        URL dURL = null;
        URL tempURL = null;
        try {
            aURL = new URL("http://java.sun.com/tutorial/intro.html#DOWNLOADING");
            bURL = new URL("http", "java.sun.com", "/tutorial/intro.html#DOWNLOADING");
            cURL = new URL("http", "java.sun.com", 80, "/tutorial/intro.html#DOWNLOADING");
            tempURL = new URL("http://java.sun.com/");
            dURL = new URL(tempURL, "tutorial/intro.html#DOWNLOADING");
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            ;
        }
        System.out.println("ref = " + aURL.getRef()); // prints DOWNLOADING
        System.out.println("ref = " + bURL.getRef()); // prints null
        System.out.println("ref = " + cURL.getRef()); // prints null
        System.out.println("ref = " + dURL.getRef()); // prints DOWNLOADING
    }
}


The output from the program is:

ref = DOWNLOADING
ref = null
ref = null
ref = DOWNLOADING