HTMLTextAreaElement: selectionchange event

The selectionchange event of the Selection API is fired when the text selection within an <textarea> element is changed. This includes both changes in the selected range of characters, or if the caret moves.

The event is usually processed by adding an event listener on the <textarea>, and in the handler function read by the HTMLTextAreaElement selectionStart, selectionEnd and selectionDirection properties.

It is also possible to add a listener on the global onselectionchange event handler, and within the handler function use Document.getSelection() to get the Selection. However this is not very useful for getting changes to text selections.

Examples

The example below shows how to get the text selected in an <textarea> element.

HTML

<div>Enter and select text here:<br><textarea id="mytext" rows="2" cols="20"></textarea></div>
<div>selectionStart: <span id="start"></span></div>
<div>selectionEnd: <span id="end"></span></div>
<div>selectionDirection: <span id="direction"></span></div>

JavaScript

const myinput = document.getElementById("mytext");

myinput.addEventListener("selectionchange", () => {
  document.getElementById("start").textContent = mytext.selectionStart;
  document.getElementById("end").textContent = mytext.selectionEnd;
  document.getElementById("direction").textContent = mytext.selectionDirection;
});

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• GlobalEventHandlers.onselectionchange