Get textbox caret position on screen - selectionStart does not exist on type HTMLElement

Asked Jul 07 '22 at 16:47

Active Jul 07 '22 at 16:47

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I am working on a project and I want to get the caret position in a textarea on the screen so I can display a container near to the cursor but everything I google says to get the element using getElementById and then calling selectionStart or selectionEnd to get the cursor position.

But whenever I try that I get the error saying selectionStart does not exist on the type HTMLElement.

Below is the code I am trying:

const elem = document.getElementById("text1") as HTMLElement;
var curPos = elem.selectionStart;

I've also tried removing the as HTMLElement in case that makes a difference but I get the same error.

asked Jul 07 '22 at 16:47

Boardy

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Have you tried `document.getElementById("text1") as HTMLInputElement`? – Anurag Srivastava Jul 07 '22 at 16:51
Ah that it, didn't realise you had to differentiate between a normal element and input element, thought everything was an HTMLelement – Boardy Jul 07 '22 at 16:59
[This link](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLInputElement) and [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/52325987/7867822) explain it well – Anurag Srivastava Jul 07 '22 at 17:04
Thanks, that's helpful. Learn something new everyday :) – Boardy Jul 07 '22 at 17:40

Get textbox caret position on screen - selectionStart does not exist on type HTMLElement

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