Document: selectionchange event

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("selectionchange", (event) => {})

onselectionchange = (event) => {}

Event type

A generic Event.

Description

The Document object selectionchange event is fired when:

• A user or script creates or clears a selection.
• The start or end boundary point of a selected range moves.
• A selected range changes completely.
• A selection collapses to a single caret position.

The event object itself does not contain the updated selection details. You can retrieve the current selection by calling document.getSelection() within your event listener.

This event differs significantly from the selectionchange event fired on <input> and <textarea> text controls:

• Document selections use DOM node positions and require Document.getSelection() for inspection. Text inputs maintain independent selections within their internal text values, using character offsets inspected via selectionStart, selectionEnd, and selectionDirection.
• The document-level selectionchange event fires directly on the Document and does not bubble. The text input selectionchange event fires on the input/textarea element and bubbles up the DOM tree.

See the selectionchange event of HTMLInputElement and the selectionchange event of HTMLTextAreaElement for more details of the text input events.

Examples

Basic usage

// addEventListener version
document.addEventListener("selectionchange", () => {
  console.log(document.getSelection());
});

// onselectionchange version
document.onselectionchange = () => {
  console.log(document.getSelection());
};

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• selectstart
• Document.getSelection()
• Selection