Selection.selectAllChildren()

This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The Selection.selectAllChildren() method adds all the children of the specified node to the selection. Previous selection is lost.

Syntax

sel.selectAllChildren(parentNode)

Parameters

parentNode
All children of parentNode will be selected. parentNode itself is not part of the selection.

Example

HTML

<main>
  <button>Select Footer</button>
  <p>Welcome to my website.</p>
  <p>I hope you enjoy your visit.</p>
</main>
<footer>
  <address>webmaster@example.com</address>
  <p>© 2019</p>
</footer>

JavaScript

const button = document.querySelector('button');
const footer = document.querySelector('footer');

button.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  window.getSelection().selectAllChildren(footer);
});

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
HTML Editing APIs
The definition of 'Selection.selectAllChildren()' in that specification.		 Editor's Draft Initial definition
Selection API
The definition of 'Selection.selectAllChildren()' in that specification.		 Working Draft Current definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub
DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
selectAllChildren
Experimental
Chrome Full support YesEdge Full support 12Firefox Full support YesIE Full support YesOpera Full support YesSafari Full support YesWebView Android Full support YesChrome Android Full support YesFirefox Android Full support YesOpera Android Full support YesSafari iOS Full support YesSamsung Internet Android ?

Legend

Full support  
Full support
Compatibility unknown  
Compatibility unknown
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.

See also

Last modified:

, by MDN contributors
Related Topics
  1. Document Object Model
  2. Selection
  3. Properties
    1. anchorNode
    2. anchorOffset
    3. focusNode
    4. focusOffset
    5. isCollapsed
    6. rangeCount
    7. type
  4. Methods
    1. addRange()
    2. collapse()
    3. collapseToEnd()
    4. collapseToStart()
    5. containsNode()
    6. deleteFromDocument()
    7. extend()
    8. getRangeAt()
    9. modify()
    10. removeAllRanges()
    11. removeRange()
    12. selectAllChildren()
    13. setBaseAndExtent()
    14. toString()
  5. Related pages for DOM
    1. AbortController
    2. AbortSignal
    3. Attr
    4. ByteString
    5. CDATASection
    6. CSSPrimitiveValue
    7. CSSValue
    8. CSSValueList
    9. CharacterData
    10. ChildNode
    11. Comment
    12. CustomEvent
    13. DOMConfiguration
    14. DOMError
    15. DOMErrorHandler
    16. DOMException
    17. DOMImplementation
    18. DOMImplementationList
    19. DOMImplementationRegistry
    20. DOMImplementationSource
    21. DOMLocator
    22. DOMObject
    23. DOMParser
    24. DOMPoint
    25. DOMPointInit
    26. DOMPointReadOnly
    27. DOMRect
    28. DOMString
    29. DOMTimeStamp
    30. DOMTokenList
    31. DOMUserData
    32. Document
    33. DocumentFragment
    34. DocumentType
    35. Element
    36. ElementTraversal
    37. Entity
    38. EntityReference
    39. Event
    40. EventTarget
    41. HTMLCollection
    42. MutationObserver
    43. Node
    44. NodeFilter
    45. NodeIterator
    46. NodeList
    47. NonDocumentTypeChildNode
    48. ProcessingInstruction
    49. PromiseResolver
    50. Range
    51. Text
    52. TextDecoder
    53. TextEncoder
    54. TimeRanges
    55. TreeWalker
    56. TypeInfo
    57. USVString
    58. UserDataHandler
    59. XMLDocument