Document: getSelection() method
The getSelection()
method of the Document
interface returns the Selection
object associated with this document, representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
Syntax
getSelection()
Parameters
None.
Return value
A Selection
object, or null
if the document has no browsing context (for example, it is the document of an <iframe>
that is not attached to a document).
Examples
Getting a Selection object
const selection = document.getSelection();
const selRange = selection.getRangeAt(0);
// do stuff with the range
console.log(selection); // Selection object
String representation of the 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:
alert(selection);
However, not all functions call toString()
automatically.
To use a Selection
object as a string, call its toString()
method directly:
let selectedText = selection.toString();
Related objects
You can call Window.getSelection()
, which is identical to window.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.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Selection API # dom-document-getselection |
Browser compatibility
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