Getting the next character after window.getSelection()

Question

Is there anyway to get the next character after a window.getSelection()? I need to check if the character after the selected text is a space or not...

EDIT: Thank you for your answers! I'm basically using this link to highlight text, but would like to limit things to full words. I've used the presented solution below (by Steven) as a starting point; I think that the following should work:

sel = window.getSelection();
var text = sel.anchorNode.nodeValue;
var index = sel.baseOffset + sel.focusOffset-1;
var isSpace = text[index] === undefined;
if (isSpace) {
alert("space");
}

(In the link above, I used this code right after the makeEditableAndHighlight function call).

Thanks! And....my solution above doesn't actually work. :( – Eric May 25 '13 at 22:09 — Eric, May 25 '13 at 22:09

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 25 '13 at 21:32

2

This is a start, provided there is at least one more character in focusNode:

window.getSelection().focusNode.textContent.charAt(window.getSelection().focusOffset)

answered May 25 '13 at 21:32

stackunderflow

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I need to do some more testing, but this is looking promising! – Eric May 25 '13 at 22:23
This is working for me on Safari. But, after doing some research, I've found that the getSelection() method doesn't work for older browsers. I wonder if I can somehow use Tim Down's rangy... – Eric May 26 '13 at 14:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 25 '13 at 21:37

1

Try it this way:

var sel = window.getSelection()
var text = sel.anchorNode.nodeValue;
var index = sel.baseOffset + sel.focusOffset;
var isSpace = text[index] === ' ';

edited May 25 '13 at 21:37

Steven Moseley

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answered May 25 '13 at 21:31

dersvenhesse

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This is not a correct example because the selection string representation might occur multiple times in the `anchorNode` – Gabriel Petrovay May 25 '13 at 21:33
Better as `var index = window.getSelection().baseOffset + window.getSelection().focusOffset;` – Steven Moseley May 25 '13 at 21:34
Also, no need for index + 1 this way. – Steven Moseley May 25 '13 at 21:38
On the right track, still not working in all the cases (i am testing on you code snipper above + Developer Tools in Chrome, selecting `sel =`) – Gabriel Petrovay May 25 '13 at 21:40
The problem is much much more complicated depending where the selection was started (`anchor`) and where it ends (`focus`). Think about selecting forward or backward the text … – Gabriel Petrovay May 25 '13 at 21:44

Getting the next character after window.getSelection()

2 Answers2