Replace selected text from input fields on button click

Question

I simply try to replace the selected text from an input field e.g from a textarea, with another text. E.g. if i select a part of the text inside the input field and click the Button CENTER, then the selected text should be wrapped in <center></center>.

I found this "solution" from 2009 which seems to be outdated, I tried it with Chrome and Firefox and I get the info that my browser is not supported.

Is there another way to achieve this? It should work at least with Firefox and Chrome.

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '16 at 11:36

17

Try this:

function getSel() // javascript
{
console.log("test");

    // obtain the object reference for the textarea>
    var txtarea = document.getElementById("mytextarea");
    // obtain the index of the first selected character
    var start = txtarea.selectionStart;
    // obtain the index of the last selected character
    var finish = txtarea.selectionEnd;
    //obtain all Text
    var allText = txtarea.value;

    // obtain the selected text
    var sel = allText.substring(start, finish);
    //append te text;
    var newText=allText.substring(0, start)+"<center>"+sel+"</center>"+allText.substring(finish, allText.length);

    console.log(newText);

    txtarea.value=newText;
}

https://jsfiddle.net/qpw1eemr/1/

answered Sep 08 '16 at 11:36

Timvr01

476
4
15

np! happy to help :) – Timvr01 Sep 08 '16 at 11:41
2

also for a larger array of functions you can use ckeditor – Velimir Tchatchevsky Sep 08 '16 at 11:58
this is awesome! cheers – Weilory Oct 14 '21 at 05:14

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '16 at 11:52

Here is one simple example

$(function() {
  $('textarea').select(function(event) {
    var elem = $(this);
    var start = elem.prop("selectionStart");
    var end = elem.prop("selectionEnd");
    
    var prefixStr = elem.text().substring(0, start);
    var sufixStr = elem.text().substring(end, elem.text().length);
    var selectedStr = elem.text().substring(start, end);
    
    function transform(str) {
      return '<center>' + str + '</center>'
    }
    
    elem.text(prefixStr + transform(selectedStr) + sufixStr);
  });
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<textarea>iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii</textarea>

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '18 at 09:24

    // hope this would be usefull
    // i used these codes for auto completing the texts in textarea.
    // other methods change all matching items before the selected text
    // but this affects only the text where caret on.
    // at first, i divided textarea.value into 3 pieces. these are ;
    // p1; until the 'searched' item, p2 after 'searched' item
    // and pa = new item that will replaced with 'searched' item
    // then, i combined them together again.

    var tea = document.getElementById(targetTextArea);

    caretPosition = tea.selectionStart - ara.length; //ara=searched item
    p1 = tea.value.substring(0,caretPosition);
        console.log('p1 text : ' + p1);
    p2 = tea.value.substring(caretPosition+ara.length,tea.value.length);
        console.log('p2 text : ' + p2);
    pa = yeni;  //new item
        console.log('pa text : ' + pa);

    tea.value = p1 + pa + p2;

    tea.selectionStart = caretPosition + yeni.length;
    tea.selectionEnd = caretPosition + yeni.length;

    tea.focus();

Replace selected text from input fields on button click

3 Answers3