Partially select text inside text field

Question

I want my script to select just a part of the text inside a text field (<input type="text"). How can I do this?

To clarify, you want a way to set the current selection by specifying a start and end index? Or by matching a regex? Or by modifying the existing selection in some predetermined fashion? Or what? — warrenm, Jun 08 '10 at 16:16
Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/646611/programmatically-selecting-partial-text-in-an-input-field — marapet, Jun 08 '10 at 16:41

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 08 '10 at 16:07

You will need to use Range, and cross-browser compatibility will probably be an issue.

Quirksmode: Creating a Range object from a Selection object

If jQuery is an option, here is a function you can use (reference)...

$.fn.selectRange = function(start, end) {
    return this.each(function() {
        if(this.setSelectionRange) {
            this.focus();
            this.setSelectionRange(start, end);
        } else if(this.createTextRange) {
            var range = this.createTextRange();
            range.collapse(true);
            range.moveEnd('character', end);
            range.moveStart('character', start);
            range.select();
        }
    });
};

Why do you need jQuery for that? – Tim Down Jun 08 '10 at 16:19 — Tim Down, Jun 08 '10 at 16:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

0

Check out Programmatically selecting partial text in an input field (may be a duplicate...)

Also, a helpful implementation concerning selected text and cursor position can be found here: http://javascript.nwbox.com/cursor_position/

edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

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answered Jun 08 '10 at 16:07

marapet

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Yup, it seems that my question is a duplicate. It's weird that I never seem to find an existing Stack Overflow question that solves my problem until I post the duplicate. – Pieter Jun 09 '10 at 10:21

Partially select text inside text field

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