HTMLTextAreaElement: selectionchange event

{{APIRef("Selection API")}}

The selectionchange event of the Selection API is fired when the text selection within a {{HTMLElement("textarea")}} element is changed. This includes both changes in the selected range of characters, or if the caret moves.

This event is not cancelable.

The event is usually processed by adding an event listener on the {{HTMLElement("textarea")}}, and in the handler function read by the {{domxref("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 {{domxref("Document.getSelection()")}} to get the {{domxref("Selection", "Selection")}}. However this is not very useful for getting changes to text selections.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like {{domxref("EventTarget.addEventListener", "addEventListener()")}}, or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("selectionchange", (event) => { })

onselectionchange = (event) => { }

Event type

A generic {{domxref("Event")}}.

Examples

The example below shows how to get the text selected in a {{HTMLElement("textarea")}} element.

HTML

<div>
  Enter and select text here:
<textarea
    id="my-text"
    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("my-text");

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

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("Examples")}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}