Selection

Baseline

Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

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A Selection object represents the range of text selected by the user or the current position of the caret. Each document is associated with a unique selection object, which can be retrieved by document.getSelection() or window.getSelection() and then be examined and modified.

For general concepts related to selections, see Selection API.

Instance properties

Selection.anchorNode Read only: Returns the Node in which the selection begins. Can return null if selection never existed in the document (e.g., an iframe that was never clicked on).
Selection.anchorOffset Read only: Returns a number representing the offset of the selection's anchor within the anchorNode. If anchorNode is a text node, this is the number of characters within anchorNode preceding the anchor. If anchorNode is an element, this is the number of child nodes of the anchorNode preceding the anchor.
Selection.direction Read only: A string describing the direction of the current selection.
Selection.focusNode Read only: Returns the Node in which the selection ends. Can return null if selection never existed in the document (e.g., an iframe that was never clicked on).
Selection.focusOffset Read only: Returns a number representing the offset of the selection's focus within the focusNode. If focusNode is a text node, this is the number of characters within focusNode preceding the focus. If focusNode is an element, this is the number of child nodes of the focusNode preceding the focus.
Selection.isCollapsed Read only: Returns a Boolean indicating whether the selection's start and end points are at the same position.
Selection.rangeCount Read only: Returns the number of ranges in the selection.
Selection.type Read only: Returns a string describing the type of the current selection.

Instance methods

Selection.addRange(): A Range object that will be added to the selection.
Selection.collapse(): Collapses the current selection to a single point.
Selection.collapseToEnd(): Collapses the selection to the end of the last range in the selection.
Selection.collapseToStart(): Collapses the selection to the start of the first range in the selection.
Selection.containsNode(): Indicates if a certain node is part of the selection.
Selection.deleteFromDocument(): Deletes the selection's content from the document.
Selection.empty(): Removes all ranges from the selection, leaving the anchorNode and focusNode properties equal to null and nothing selected.
Selection.extend(): Moves the focus of the selection to a specified point.
Selection.getComposedRanges(): Returns an array of StaticRange objects, each that represents a selection that might cross shadow DOM boundaries.
Selection.getRangeAt(): Returns a Range object representing one of the ranges currently selected.
Selection.modify(): Changes the current selection.
Selection.removeRange(): Removes a range from the selection.
Selection.removeAllRanges(): Removes all ranges from the selection.
Selection.selectAllChildren(): Adds all the children of the specified node to the selection.
Selection.setBaseAndExtent(): Sets the selection to be a range including all or parts of two specified DOM nodes, and any content located between them.
Selection.setPosition(): Collapses the current selection to a single point.
Selection.toString(): Returns a string currently being represented by the selection object, i.e., the currently selected text.