How to get Selected Text from DIV

Question

I'm getting the selected text from textarea but I can't get it from a div. I'm trying with document.getElementById('myDiv') but it doesn't work.

To be more specific. When I have text, using this method I can get the selected text

function TestSelection () 
{
            if (window.getSelection) {  
                var selectionRange = window.getSelection(); 
                alert ("The text content of the selection:\n" + selectionRange.toString());
            }
}

but I cant specify the div to get it's selected text. Only from this div, not from another. I tried var value = document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML; and then value.getSelection but it doesn't work too. Thank you very much!!!

This might help: https://stackoverflow.com/q/5379120/1066234 — Avatar, Mar 20 '23 at 14:50

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 21 '13 at 21:58

4

Simply ,do the following :

var ss=getSelection();

ss.baseNode.data.substring(ss.baseOffset,ss.extentOffset);

enter image description here

answered Aug 21 '13 at 21:58

Abdennour TOUMI

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If you use this code with marking a text by mouse and then releasing the mouse outside of the selected text, it returns an empty string. – Avatar Mar 20 '23 at 14:47
remember the answer is 10 years old :) – Abdennour TOUMI Mar 21 '23 at 01:50

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:54

2

Use the innerHTML property

var html = document.getElementById('myDiv').innerHTML;

answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:54

Kevin Bowersox

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Thank you for your answer. I updated my question to be more specific because I still can't do it. Thank you again. – jimakos17 Dec 05 '12 at 16:15

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:55

1

You should use innerHTML property:

var value = document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML;

answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:55

VisioN

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:58

1

You should use Selection

var selObj = window.getSelection();
window.alert(selObj);

answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:58

Ivan Solntsev

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score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:57

-1

for jquery

var str = $("#myDiv").text();

str is the text

answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:57

Waqleh

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How to get Selected Text from DIV

5 Answers5