window.getselection() not working in FF and chrome

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16088372

Question

I have texbox in my page and I am trying to get the length from the textbox. I know how to get the length in IE, but the following code is not working in FF and chrome.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
function myFunction(obj)
{
alert("mouse up");
var r=window.getSelection().createRange();
alert(r.text.length);

}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<textarea id="myArea" cols="30" spellcheck="false" onmouseup=myFunction(this)>Select some text within this field.</textarea>


</body>
</html>
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Solution

Textareas and text inputs have a different selection API from the main document selection. Use selectionStart and selectionEnd properties of the textarea/input.

function myFunction(obj) {
    var selectedText = obj.value.slice(obj.selectionStart, obj.selectionEnd);
    alert(selectedText);
}

If you need support for IE <= 8, there is a different API again. See Caret position in textarea, in characters from the start

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