What is the proper way to link to another answer on the same question?

Question

Sometimes I'd like to link to another answer of the same question in my own answer. The simple way to do it is to copy the permalink of the answer and use that. However, that is likely to reload the page when clicking the link because SO links are not normalized to a canonical form. I also tried making a link of the form [link](#id) but this won't render.

I'd prefer a technique that avoids reloading the page, if possible.

(EDIT: If there's no better way of doing this, of course I'll accept that as an answer too. I'd just like to make sure I didn't miss something.)

Answer 1

[link](#id) used to be supported and was nice in most cases, but it became unreliable for those rare questions which span multiple pages. I prefer to accept the reload and use the normal [link](/a/id), as it's the most convenient and unambiguous way of reliably specifying the target.

Answer 2

You can't do a direct anchor link. Do what you're already doing and use the share link you get beneath their post:

This works just fine and is resilient to scenarios which can make a simple #anchor link fail (question migration, the question has 30+ answers and is now paginated with the answer you're linking to on a different page, or someone views your post revision independently). Plus, using the share URL can get you the announcer, booster and publicist badges.

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There is one way to create an anchor link that involves no page reload. This method is unreliable and broken by basic site interactions; I don't recommend using it ever and I'm only describing it for comprehensiveness. Use the share link.

Take the full URL of the question and strip it down to a domain-relative link (e.g. for this question, /questions/209342/how-to-link-as-an-anchor-link-to-another-answer-in-same-page). Append the anchor ID onto that manually (#209580 for this answer) to get a URL that jumps to an answer without reloading the page: here it is in action. This also accounts for the popular HTTPS Everywhere addon, and site migrations.

This method only saves a page load if I'm already on the exact URL you're assuming. That means this method is broken by title changes, by a trailing slash, by visiting this page via an answer share link or after editing an answer (appends a /post_id to the URL), or via a notification (appends ?noredirect=1). It also breaks of there's >30 answers and thus the question is paginated, and my current sort mode (active/oldest/votes) pushes that answer onto another page.

You avoid these breakages by keeping up with all title changes, ensuring everyone is on the same URL first (give them a master link to click), and working around the 30+ answers issue somehow (ask everyone to use the right sorting method?).

I recommend this trouble is not worthwhile for avoiding something as trivial as a page reload, and that you just use the share link.

Answer 3

Use the /a/answerID link you get by clicking the “share” button under the answer. This is the only kind of link that will work in all circumstances, such a when viewing a single post’s revision, viewing a post in a review queue, or when the answer list is paginated, when an answer is moved between questions on the same site (which does happen, if rarely), etc.

If you want to prevent page reloading when following answer links, I recommend a user script of my own creation, which reroutes full answer links, no matter their form, to anchor links on the current page whenever it can. If the answer is not detected on the current page, the link will be followed as usual. (I guess you could say this should be built-in to Stack Exchange, but in the meantime, a user script should do.)