Count number of characters in selected text

Question

asdf

Given this div, if a user were to select the word asdf with their cursor, the the character count would be 4.

In JavaScript, how can you determine what the user has selected with their cursor; more specifically, text.

jQuery library preferred.

I've tried:

var text = document.getSelection().toString();
var length = document.getSelection().toString().length;
if (text) {
    alert(text);
}
if (length) {
    alert(length);
}

http://jsfiddle.net/fxjgW/

Refer to this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9924851/find-selectedtext-by-mouse-selection-in-div-jquery — Irvin Dominin, Apr 26 '13 at 15:13
@OP I just copied your code, pasted it on the console in Chrome's Developer tools, ran it, and it alerted what I had selected... — DarkAjax, Apr 26 '13 at 16:24
@darkajax, http://jsfiddle.net/fxjgW/ It doesn't alert `asdf` when I select it. — O P, Apr 26 '13 at 16:28

DarkAjax · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26T16:35:03.447

3

Seeing your updated question I see the problem is that you're not triggering the text selection, as far as I know there is no DOM event for text selection, but you can set it for mouseup, like this:

$(document.body).on('mouseup', function(){
    var text = document.getSelection().toString();
    var length = document.getSelection().toString().length;
    if (text) {
        alert(text);
    }
    if (length) {
        alert(length);
    }
});

Update jsfiddle

edited Apr 26 '13 at 16:35

answered Apr 26 '13 at 15:11

DarkAjax

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11
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I gave that a try, but it didn't seem to work. I've updated my post with what I've tried. – O P Apr 26 '13 at 16:21
This works great except for the case where the user drags their mouse outside the bounds of the jsfiddle iframe and the mouseup is never caught. Not sure if the OP has some similar situation. – LouD Apr 26 '13 at 16:48

Count number of characters in selected text

1 Answers1