HTMLTextAreaElement: selectionDirection property

{{APIRef("HTML DOM")}}

The selectionDirection property of the {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement")}} interface specifies the current direction of the selection. The possible values are "forward", "backward", and "none". The forward value indicates the selection was performed in the start-to-end direction of the current locale, with backward indicating the opposite direction. The none value occurs if the direction is unknown. It can be used to both retrieve and change the direction of the <textarea>s selected text.

Setting the selectionDirection to a new value fires the {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.selectionchange_event", "selectionchange")}} and {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.select_event", "select")}} events.

Value

A string; "forward", "backward", or "none".

Examples

const textarea = document.getElementById("text-box");
const end = textarea.selectionDirection;

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{HTMLElement("textarea")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.selectionStart")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.selectionEnd")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.textLength")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.select()")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.setSelectionRange()")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLTextAreaElement.setRangeText()")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLInputElement.selectionDirection")}}
• {{domxref("Selection")}}
• {{cssxref("::selection")}} pseudo-element