HTMLInputElement: select() method

{{ APIRef("HTML DOM") }}

The HTMLInputElement.select() method selects all the text in a {{HTMLElement("textarea")}} element or in an {{HTMLElement("input")}} element that includes a text field.

Syntax

select()

Parameters

None.

Return value

None ({{jsxref("undefined")}}).

Examples

Click the button in this example to select all the text in the <input> element.

HTML

<input type="text" id="text-box" size="20" value="Hello world!" />
<button>Select text</button>

JavaScript

function selectText() {
  const input = document.getElementById("text-box");
  input.focus();
  input.select();
}

document.querySelector("button").addEventListener("click", selectText);

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("Examples")}}

Notes

Calling element.select() will not necessarily focus the input, so it is often used with {{domxref("HTMLElement.focus")}}.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{ HTMLElement("input") }}
• {{ HTMLElement("textarea") }}
• {{ domxref("HTMLInputElement") }}
• {{ domxref("HTMLInputElement.setSelectionRange") }}