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 July 2015.

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

Value

The number of drag data items in the list, or 0 if the list is empty or disabled. The drag item list is considered to be disabled if the item list's DataTransfer object is not associated with a drag data store.

Examples

This example shows the use of the length property.

JavaScript

js
function dragstart_handler(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");
}

function drop_handler(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}`);
      });
    }
  }
}

function dragover_handler(ev) {
  console.log("dragOver");
  ev.preventDefault();
  // Set the dropEffect to move
  ev.dataTransfer.dropEffect = "move";
}

function dragend_handler(ev) {
  console.log("dragEnd");
  const dataList = ev.dataTransfer.items;
  // Clear any remaining drag data
  dataList.clear();
}

HTML

html
<div>
  <p
    id="source"
    ondragstart="dragstart_handler(event);"
    ondragend="dragend_handler(event);"
    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"
  ondrop="drop_handler(event);"
  ondragover="dragover_handler(event);">
  Drop Zone
</div>

CSS

css
div {
  margin: 0em;
  padding: 2em;
}

#source {
  color: blue;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

#target {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-datatransferitemlist-length-dev

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
length

Legend

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Full support
Full support