The getSelection()
method of the Document
interface returns a Selection
object representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
The getSelection()
method of the Document
interface returns a Selection
object representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
js
getSelection()
None.
A Selection
object.
js
let selection = document.getSelection(); let selRange = selection.getRangeAt(0); // do stuff with the range console.log(selection); // Selection object
Some functions (like Window.alert()
) call toString()
automatically and the returned value is passed to the function. As a consequence, this will return the selected text and not the Selection
object:
js
alert(selection);
However, not all functions call toString()
automatically. To use a Selection
object as a string, call its toString()
method directly:
js
let selectedText = selection.toString();
You can call Window.getSelection()
, which works identically to Document.getSelection()
.
It is worth noting that currently getSelection()
doesn't work on the content of <input>
elements in Firefox. HTMLInputElement.setSelectionRange()
) could be used to work around this.
Notice also the difference between selection and focus. Document.activeElement
returns the focused element.
Specification |
---|
Selection API # dom-document-getselection |
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | WebView Android | Chrome Android | Firefox for Android | Opera Android | Safari on IOS | Samsung Internet | |
getSelection |
2 | 12 | 1 | 9 | ≤12.1 | 4 | ≤37 | 18 | 4 | ≤12.1 | 3.2 | 1.0 |
© 2005–2023 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/getSelection