DataTransferItemList: length property

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.

See full compatibility
Learn more

The length read-only property of the DataTransferItemList interface returns the number of items currently in the drag item list.

During a drag operation, this property can be read in any drag event handler, even when the drag data store is in protected mode. The number of items remains accessible, but their data can only be read in the handlers for the dragstart and drop events. See Reading the drag data store for details.

<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

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();
  const data = ev.dataTransfer.items;
  // Loop through the dropped items and log their data
  for (let i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
    if (data[i].kind === "string" && data[i].type.match("^text/plain")) {
      // This item is the target node
      data[i].getAsString((s) => {
        ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(s));
      });
    } else if (data[i].kind === "string" && data[i].type.match("^text/html")) {
      // Drag data item is HTML
      data[i].getAsString((s) => {
        console.log(`… Drop: HTML = ${s}`);
      });
    } else if (
      data[i].kind === "string" &&
      data[i].type.match("^text/uri-list")
    ) {
      // Drag data item is URI
      data[i].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";
});