Selection: toString() 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 Selection.toString() method returns a string currently being represented by the selection object, i.e. the currently selected text.

Syntax

js
toString()

Parameters

None.

Return value

A string representing the selection.

Description

This method returns the currently selected text.

In JavaScript, this method is called automatically when a function the selection object is passed to requires a string:

js
alert(window.getSelection()); // What is called
alert(window.getSelection().toString()); // What is actually being effectively called.

Specifications

Specification
Selection API
# dom-selection-stringifier

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also