DataTransferItem: getAsString() method

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 DataTransferItem.getAsString() method invokes the given callback with the drag data item's string data as the argument if the item's kind is a Plain unicode string (i.e. kind is string).

Syntax

js
getAsString(callbackFn)

Parameters

callbackFn

A callback function that receives following arguments:

data

The DataTransferItem's string data.

Return value

None (undefined).

Examples

This example shows the use of the getAsString() method as an inline function in a drop event handler.

js
function dropHandler(ev) {
  console.log("Drop");
  ev.preventDefault();
  const data = ev.dataTransfer.items;
  for (let i = 0; i < data.length; i += 1) {
    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
      console.log("… Drop: HTML");
    } else if (
      data[i].kind === "string" &&
      data[i].type.match("^text/uri-list")
    ) {
      // Drag data item is URI
      console.log("… Drop: URI");
    } else if (data[i].kind === "file" && data[i].type.match("^image/")) {
      // Drag data item is an image file
      const f = data[i].getAsFile();
      console.log("… Drop: File");
    }
  }
}

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-datatransferitem-getasstring-dev

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also