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Element: select event

The select event fires when some text has been selected.

Bubbles Yes
Cancelable No
Interface UIEvent if generated from a user interface, Event otherwise
Event handler property onselect

The event is not available for all elements in all languages. For example, in HTML, select events can be dispatched only on form <input type="text"> and <textarea> elements.

Examples

Selection logger

<input value="Try selecting some text in this element.">
<p id="log"></p>

function logSelection(event) {
  const log = document.getElementById('log');
  const selection = event.target.value.substring(event.target.selectionStart, event.target.selectionEnd);
  log.textContent = `You selected: ${selection}`;
}

const input = document.querySelector('input');
input.addEventListener('select', logSelection);

onselect equivalent

You can also set up the event handler using the onselect property:

input.onselect = logSelection;

Specifications

Specification
UI Events
# event-type-select

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
select_event
1
12
6
9
≤12.1
1
1
18
6
≤12.1
1
1.0

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/select_event