web api instance method
Document: getSelection() method
The getSelection() method of the Document interface returns the Selection object associated with this document, representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
Syntax
getSelection()
Parameters
None.
Return value
A Selection object, or null if the document has no browsing context (for example, it is the document of an <iframe> that is not attached to a document).
Examples
Getting a Selection object
const selection = document.getSelection();
const selRange = selection.getRangeAt(0);
// do stuff with the range
console.log(selection); // Selection object
String representation of the Selection object
Some functions (like alert()) call toString()
automatically and the returned value is passed to the function. As a consequence, this will return the selected text
and not the Selection object:
alert(selection);
However, not all functions call toString() automatically.
To use a Selection object as a string, call its toString() method directly:
let selectedText = selection.toString();
Related objects
You can call getSelection(), which is identical to window.document.getSelection().
It is worth noting that currently getSelection() doesn’t work on the
content of <input> elements in Firefox.
setSelectionRange()) could be used to work around this.
Notice also the difference between selection and focus.
activeElement returns the focused element.