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DataTransferItemList: clear() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨November 2016⁩.

The DataTransferItemList method clear() removes all DataTransferItem objects from the drag data items list, leaving the list empty.

The drag data store in which this list is kept is only writable while handling the dragstart event. While handling drop, the drag data store is in read-only mode, and this method silently does nothing. No exception is thrown.

Syntax

clear()

Parameters

None.

Return value

None (undefined).

Examples

This example shows the use of the clear() method.

HTML

<div>
  <p id="source" draggable="true">
    Select this element, drag it to the Drop Zone and then release the selection
    to move the element.
  </p>
</div>
<div id="target">Drop Zone</div>

CSS

div {
  margin: 0em;
  padding: 2em;
}
#source {
  color: blue;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
#target {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

JavaScript

const source = document.getElementById("source");
const target = document.getElementById("target");

source.addEventListener("dragstart", (ev) => {
  console.log("dragStart");

  // Add this element's id to the drag payload so the drop handler will
  // know which element to add to its tree
  const dataList = ev.dataTransfer.items;
  dataList.add(ev.target.id, "text/plain");

  // Add some other items to the drag payload
  dataList.add("<p>Paragraph…</p>", "text/html");
  dataList.add("http://www.example.org", "text/uri-list");
});

source.addEventListener("dragend", (ev) => {
  console.log("dragEnd");
  const dataList = ev.dataTransfer.items;

  // Clear any remaining drag data
  dataList.clear();
});

target.addEventListener("drop", (ev) => {
  console.log("Drop");
  ev.preventDefault();

  // Loop through the dropped items and log their data
  for (const item of ev.dataTransfer.items) {
    if (item.kind === "string" && item.type.match(/^text\/plain/)) {
      // This item is the target node
      item.getAsString((s) => {
        ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(s));
      });
    } else if (item.kind === "string" && item.type.match(/^text\/html/)) {
      // Drag data item is HTML
      item.getAsString((s) => {
        console.log(`… Drop: HTML = ${s}`);
      });
    } else if (item.kind === "string" && item.type.match(/^text\/uri-list/)) {
      // Drag data item is URI
      item.getAsString((s) => {
        console.log(`… Drop: URI = ${s}`);
      });
    }
  }
});

target.addEventListener("dragover", (ev) => {
  console.log("dragOver");
  ev.preventDefault();

  // Set the dropEffect to move
  ev.dataTransfer.dropEffect = "move";
});

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android WebView on iOS
clear 13 12 50 12 6 18 50 ≤14 6 1.0 4.4 6

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/DataTransferItemList/clear