Window: getSelection() method
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2017.
The getSelection()
method of the Window
interface returns the Selection
object associated with the window's document
, representing the range of text selected by the user or the current position of the caret.
Syntax
getSelection()
Parameters
None.
Return value
A Selection
object, or null
if the associated document has no browsing context (for example, the window is an <iframe>
that is not attached to a document).
When called on an <iframe>
that is not displayed (e.g., where display: none
is set) Firefox returns null
, whereas other browsers returns a Selection
object with Selection.type
set to None
.
Examples
function foo() {
const selObj = window.getSelection();
alert(selObj);
const selRange = selObj.getRangeAt(0);
// do stuff with the range
}
Notes
String representation of the Selection object
In JavaScript, when an object is passed to a function expecting a string (like window.alert()
or document.write()
), the object's toString()
method is called and the returned value is passed to the function.
This can make the object appear to be a string when used with other functions when it is really an object with properties and methods.
In the above example, selObj.toString()
is automatically called when it is
passed to window.alert()
. However, attempting to use a JavaScript String property
or method such as
length
or
substr
directly on a Selection
object will result in an error if it does not
have that property or method and may return unexpected results if it does. To use a
Selection
object as a string, call its toString()
method
directly:
const selectedText = selObj.toString();
selObj
is aSelection
object.selectedText
is a string (Selected text).
Related objects
You can call Document.getSelection()
, which works identically to
Window.getSelection()
.
It is worth noting that currently getSelection()
doesn't work on the
content of <textarea>
and <input>
elements in Firefox
and Edge (Legacy). HTMLInputElement.setSelectionRange()
or the selectionStart
and selectionEnd
properties could be
used to work around this.
Notice also the difference between selection and focus.
Document.activeElement
returns the focused element.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Selection API # dom-window-getselection |
Browser compatibility
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