Copy text string on click

Question

I want to to be able to copy a text string on click without a button. The text string will be inside a "span" class.

1. User hovers over text string
2. User clicks text string
3. Text string is copied to clipboard

Answer 1

You can attach copy event to <span> element, use document.execCommand("copy") within event handler, set event.clipboardData to span .textContent with .setData() method of event.clipboardData

const span = document.querySelector("span");

span.onclick = function() {
  document.execCommand("copy");
}

span.addEventListener("copy", function(event) {
  event.preventDefault();
  if (event.clipboardData) {
    event.clipboardData.setData("text/plain", span.textContent);
    console.log(event.clipboardData.getData("text"))
  }
});

<span>text</span>

Answer 2

Try this .document.execCommand('copy')

1. click the element and copy the text and post with tmp input element
2. Then copy the text from this input

function copy(that){
var inp =document.createElement('input');
document.body.appendChild(inp)
inp.value =that.textContent
inp.select();
document.execCommand('copy',false);
inp.remove();
}

<p onclick="copy(this)">hello man</p>

Answer 3

Use the Clipboard API!

The simplest modern solution is:

navigator.clipboard.writeText(value)

That value can later be accessed with:

navigator.clipboard.readText()

NOTE: This requires https, meaning it won't work on localhost by default

NOTE: To use in an iframe, you'll need to add write (and maybe read) permissions

<iframe src='' allow='clipboard-read; clipboard-write'/>

NOTE: To use in an browser extension (on a webpage), you'll need either to:

• call from a user triggered event (click...)
• add the 'clipboardWrite' permission to the manifest

NOTE: To use in the dev console, use copy() instead

copy('string')

W3Schools Tutorial

CanIUse

Answer 4

This is the Code pen.

<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oswald' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> 

<p style="color:wheat;font-size:55px;text-align:center;">How to copy a TEXT to Clipboard on a Button-Click</p>

<center>
<p id="p1">This is  TEXT 1</p>
<p id="p2">This is TEXT 2</p><br/>

<button onclick="copyToClipboard('#p1')">Copy TEXT 1</button>
<button onclick="copyToClipboard('#p2')">Copy TEXT 2</button>

<br/><br/><input class="textBox" type="text" id="" placeholder="Dont belive me?..TEST it here..;)" />
</center>

Jquery Code here

function copyToClipboard(element) {
  var $temp = $("<input>");
  $("body").append($temp);
  $temp.val($(element).text()).select();
  document.execCommand("copy");
  $temp.remove();
}

Answer 5

Along with copying the text , you also have to make sure that any previously selected component remains selected after copying to clipboard.

Here's the full code :

const copyToClipboard = str => {
  const el = document.createElement('textarea');  // Create a <textarea> element
  el.value = str;                                 // Set its value to the string that you want copied
  el.setAttribute('readonly', '');                // Make it readonly to be tamper-proof
  el.style.position = 'absolute';                 
  el.style.left = '-9999px';                      // Move outside the screen to make it invisible
  document.body.appendChild(el);                  // Append the <textarea> element to the HTML document
  const selected =            
    document.getSelection().rangeCount > 0        // Check if there is any content selected previously
      ? document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0)     // Store selection if found
      : false;                                    // Mark as false to know no selection existed before
  el.select();                                    // Select the <textarea> content
  document.execCommand('copy');                   // Copy - only works as a result of a user action (e.g. click events)
  document.body.removeChild(el);                  // Remove the <textarea> element
  if (selected) {                                 // If a selection existed before copying
    document.getSelection().removeAllRanges();    // Unselect everything on the HTML document
    document.getSelection().addRange(selected);   // Restore the original selection
  }
};

ps adding the source

Answer 6

guest271314's answer applied to multiple elements:

spans = document.querySelectorAll(".class");
for (const span of spans) {
  span.onclick = function() {
    document.execCommand("copy");
  }

  span.addEventListener("copy", function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    if (event.clipboardData) {
      event.clipboardData.setData("text/plain", span.textContent);
      console.log(event.clipboardData.getData("text"))
    }
  });
}

<span class="class">text</span>
<br>
<span class="class">text2</span>

Answer 7

The execCommand() method, previously used for copying text to the clipboard, has been deprecated and should not be used in modern web development. Instead, the navigator.clipboard API is now the recommended way to perform clipboard operations in the browser. This API is a built-in browser Web API, which means that it is both secure and easy to integrate into your web applications without any external dependencies.

The Clipboard API can be used to implement cut, copy, and paste features within a web application.

The following code snippets will only copy the content of the clicked span element.

jQuery:

$(document).on('click', 'span', function() {
      let copyText = $(this)[0].textContent
      navigator.clipboard.writeText(copyText)
})

Javascript

document.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
  if (event.target.tagName === 'SPAN') {
    let copyText = event.target.textContent;
    navigator.clipboard.writeText(copyText);
  }
});

Feel free to customize accordingly.

Answer 8

HTML:

<button type='button' id='btn'>Copy</button>

JS

document.querySelect('#btn').addEventListener('click', function() {
   copyToClipboard('copy this text');
});

JS / Function:

function copyToClipboard(text) {
    var selected = false;
    var el = document.createElement('textarea');
    el.value = text;
    el.setAttribute('readonly', '');
    el.style.position = 'absolute';
    el.style.left = '-9999px';
    document.body.appendChild(el);
    if (document.getSelection().rangeCount > 0) {
        selected = document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0)
    }
    el.select();
    document.execCommand('copy');
    document.body.removeChild(el);
    if (selected) {
        document.getSelection().removeAllRanges();
        document.getSelection().addRange(selected);
    }
};

Answer 9

This is the most suitable way to do it. It will copy all text in elements with the class "copy" in them.

var copy = document.querySelectorAll(".copy"); 

for (const copied of copy) { 
  copied.onclick = function() { 
    document.execCommand("copy"); 
  };  
  copied.addEventListener("copy", function(event) { 
    event.preventDefault(); 
    if (event.clipboardData) { 
      event.clipboardData.setData("text/plain", copied.textContent);
      console.log(event.clipboardData.getData("text"))
    };
  });
};

.copy {
            
  cursor: copy;
            
}

<p><span class="copy">Text</span></p>
<p><span class="copy">More Text</span></p>
<p><span class="copy">Even More Text</span></p>

Answer 10

u can also use onclick like

 function copyCode() {
  const Code = document.querySelector("input");
  Code.select();
  document.execCommand("copy", false);
}

<input type="input"  />
<button onclick={copyCode()}>Copy</button>

Answer 11

Most answers I have found here seem to be outdated. You should use the clipboard API instead of execCommand. This code should work:

    let textString = document.querySelector('span.textstring').textContent; //Get value of the string you want to copy
    const copyText = async () => {
        try {
            await navigator.clipboard.writeText(textString);
            console.log('Content copied to clipboard!');
        } catch (err) {
            console.log('Copy failed!');
        }
    }
    document.querySelector('span.textstring').addEventListener('click', copyText); //Add the event handler click, so when the span is clicked, the value is copied

Inspired and adapted by: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/copy-text-to-clipboard-javascript/

Answer 12

function copy(that){
var inp =document.createElement('input');
document.body.appendChild(inp)
inp.value =that.textContent
inp.select();
document.execCommand('copy',false);
inp.remove();
}

<p onclick="copy(this)">hello man</p>