How can I get the caret position from within an input field?
I have found a few bits and pieces via Google, but nothing bullet proof.
Basically something like a jQuery plugin would be ideal, so I could simply do
$("#myinput").caretPosition()
Easier update:
Use field.selectionStart example in this answer.
Thanks to #commonSenseCode for pointing this out.
Old answer:
Found this solution. Not jquery based but there is no problem to integrate it to jquery:
/*
** Returns the caret (cursor) position of the specified text field (oField).
** Return value range is 0-oField.value.length.
*/
function doGetCaretPosition (oField) {
// Initialize
var iCaretPos = 0;
// IE Support
if (document.selection) {
// Set focus on the element
oField.focus();
// To get cursor position, get empty selection range
var oSel = document.selection.createRange();
// Move selection start to 0 position
oSel.moveStart('character', -oField.value.length);
// The caret position is selection length
iCaretPos = oSel.text.length;
}
// Firefox support
else if (oField.selectionStart || oField.selectionStart == '0')
iCaretPos = oField.selectionDirection=='backward' ? oField.selectionStart : oField.selectionEnd;
// Return results
return iCaretPos;
}
Use selectionStart. It is compatible with all major browsers.
document.getElementById('foobar').addEventListener('keyup', e => {
console.log('Caret at: ', e.target.selectionStart)
})
<input id="foobar" />
This works only when no type is defined or type="text" or type="textarea" on the input.
I've wrapped the functionality in bezmax's answer into jQuery if anyone wants to use it.
(function($) {
$.fn.getCursorPosition = function() {
var input = this.get(0);
if (!input) return; // No (input) element found
if ('selectionStart' in input) {
// Standard-compliant browsers
return input.selectionStart;
} else if (document.selection) {
// IE
input.focus();
var sel = document.selection.createRange();
var selLen = document.selection.createRange().text.length;
sel.moveStart('character', -input.value.length);
return sel.text.length - selLen;
}
}
})(jQuery);
Got a very simple solution.
Try the following code with verified result-
<html>
<head>
<script>
function f1(el) {
var val = el.value;
alert(val.slice(0, el.selectionStart).length);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type=text id=t1 value=abcd>
<button onclick="f1(document.getElementById('t1'))">check position</button>
</body>
</html>
I'm giving you the fiddle_demo
There is now a nice plugin for this: The Caret Plugin
Then you can get the position using $("#myTextBox").caret() or set it via $("#myTextBox").caret(position)
(function($) {
$.fn.getCursorPosition = function() {
var input = this.get(0);
if (!input) return; // No (input) element found
if (document.selection) {
// IE
input.focus();
}
return 'selectionStart' in input ? input.selectionStart:'' || Math.abs(document.selection.createRange().moveStart('character', -input.value.length));
}
})(jQuery);
There are a few good answers posted here, but I think you can simplify your code and skip the check for inputElement.selectionStart support: it is not supported only on IE8 and earlier (see documentation) which represents less than 1% of the current browser usage.
var input = document.getElementById('myinput'); // or $('#myinput')[0]
var caretPos = input.selectionStart;
// and if you want to know if there is a selection or not inside your input:
if (input.selectionStart != input.selectionEnd)
{
var selectionValue =
input.value.substring(input.selectionStart, input.selectionEnd);
}
Perhaps you need a selected range in addition to cursor position. Here is a simple function, you don't even need jQuery:
function caretPosition(input) {
var start = input[0].selectionStart,
end = input[0].selectionEnd,
diff = end - start;
if (start >= 0 && start == end) {
// do cursor position actions, example:
console.log('Cursor Position: ' + start);
} else if (start >= 0) {
// do ranged select actions, example:
console.log('Cursor Position: ' + start + ' to ' + end + ' (' + diff + ' selected chars)');
}
}
Let's say you wanna call it on an input whenever it changes or mouse moves cursor position (in this case we are using jQuery .on()). For performance reasons, it may be a good idea to add setTimeout() or something like Underscores _debounce() if events are pouring in:
$('input[type="text"]').on('keyup mouseup mouseleave', function() {
caretPosition($(this));
});
Here is a fiddle if you wanna try it out: https://jsfiddle.net/Dhaupin/91189tq7/
const inpT = document.getElementById("text-box");
const inpC = document.getElementById("text-box-content");
// swch gets inputs .
var swch;
// swch if corsur is active in inputs defaulte is false .
var isSelect = false;
var crnselect;
// on focus
function setSwitch(e) {
swch = e;
isSelect = true;
console.log("set Switch: " + isSelect);
}
// on click ev
function setEmoji() {
if (isSelect) {
console.log("emoji added :)");
swch.value += ":)";
swch.setSelectionRange(2,2 );
isSelect = true;
}
}
// on not selected on input .
function onout() {
// الافنت اون كي اب
crnselect = inpC.selectionStart;
// return input select not active after 200 ms .
var len = swch.value.length;
setTimeout(() => {
(len == swch.value.length)? isSelect = false:isSelect = true;
}, 200);
}
<h1> Try it !</h1>
<input type="text" onfocus = "setSwitch(this)" onfocusout = "onout()" id="text-box" size="20" value="title">
<input type="text" onfocus = "setSwitch(this)" onfocusout = "onout()" id="text-box-content" size="20" value="content">
<button onclick="setEmoji()">emogi :) </button>
The solution is .selectionStart:
var input = document.getElementById('yourINPUTid');
input.selectionEnd = input.selectionStart = yourDESIREDposition;
input.focus();
If .selectionEnd is not assiged, some text (S-->E) will be selected.
.focus() is required when the focus is lost; when you trigger your code (onClick).
I only tested this in Chrome.
If you want more complicated solutions, you have to read the other answers.
What is the best way (and I presume simplest way) to place the cursor at the end of the text in a input text element via JavaScript - after focus has been set to the element?
There's a simple way to get it working in most browsers.
this.selectionStart = this.selectionEnd = this.value.length;
However, due to the *quirks of a few browsers, a more inclusive answer looks more like this
setTimeout(function(){ that.selectionStart = that.selectionEnd = 10000; }, 0);
Using jQuery (to set the listener, but it's not necessary otherwise)
$('#el').focus(function(){
var that = this;
setTimeout(function(){ that.selectionStart = that.selectionEnd = 10000; }, 0);
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input id='el' type='text' value='put cursor at end'>
Using Vanilla JS (borrowing addEvent function from this answer)
// Basic cross browser addEvent
function addEvent(elem, event, fn){
if(elem.addEventListener){
elem.addEventListener(event, fn, false);
}else{
elem.attachEvent("on" + event,
function(){ return(fn.call(elem, window.event)); });
}}
var element = document.getElementById('el');
addEvent(element,'focus',function(){
var that = this;
setTimeout(function(){ that.selectionStart = that.selectionEnd = 10000; }, 0);
});
<input id='el' type='text' value='put cursor at end'>
Quirks
Chrome has an odd quirk where the focus event fires before the cursor is moved into the field; which screws my simple solution up. Two options to fix this:
You can add a timeout of 0 ms (to defer the operation until the stack is clear)
You can change the event from focus to mouseup. This would be pretty annoying for the user unless you still kept track of focus. I'm not really in love with either of these options.
Also, #vladkras pointed out that some older versions of Opera incorrectly calculate the length when it has spaces. For this you can use a huge number that should be larger than your string.
Try this, it has worked for me:
//input is the input element
input.focus(); //sets focus to element
var val = this.input.value; //store the value of the element
this.input.value = ''; //clear the value of the element
this.input.value = val; //set that value back.
For the cursor to be move to the end, the input has to have focus first, then when the value is changed it will goto the end. If you set .value to the same, it won't change in chrome.
I faced this same issue (after setting focus through RJS/prototype) in IE.
Firefox was already leaving the cursor at the end when there is already a value for the field. IE was forcing the cursor to the beginning of the text.
The solution I arrived at is as follows:
<input id="search" type="text" value="mycurrtext" size="30"
onfocus="this.value = this.value;" name="search"/>
This works in both IE7 and FF3 but doesn't work in modern browsers (see comments) as it is not specified that UA must overwrite the value in this case (edited in accordance with meta policy).
After hacking around with this a bit, I found the best way was to use the setSelectionRange function if the browser supports it; if not, revert to using the method in Mike Berrow's answer (i.e. replace the value with itself).
I'm also setting scrollTop to a high value in case we're in a vertically-scrollable textarea. (Using an arbitrary high value seems more reliable than $(this).height() in Firefox and Chrome.)
I've made it is as a jQuery plugin. (If you're not using jQuery I trust you can still get the gist easily enough.)
I've tested in IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox 3.5.5, Google Chrome 3.0, Safari 4.0.4, Opera 10.00.
It's available on jquery.com as the PutCursorAtEnd plugin. For your convenience, the code for release 1.0 is as follows:
// jQuery plugin: PutCursorAtEnd 1.0
// http://plugins.jquery.com/project/PutCursorAtEnd
// by teedyay
//
// Puts the cursor at the end of a textbox/ textarea
// codesnippet: 691e18b1-f4f9-41b4-8fe8-bc8ee51b48d4
(function($)
{
jQuery.fn.putCursorAtEnd = function()
{
return this.each(function()
{
$(this).focus()
// If this function exists...
if (this.setSelectionRange)
{
// ... then use it
// (Doesn't work in IE)
// Double the length because Opera is inconsistent about whether a carriage return is one character or two. Sigh.
var len = $(this).val().length * 2;
this.setSelectionRange(len, len);
}
else
{
// ... otherwise replace the contents with itself
// (Doesn't work in Google Chrome)
$(this).val($(this).val());
}
// Scroll to the bottom, in case we're in a tall textarea
// (Necessary for Firefox and Google Chrome)
this.scrollTop = 999999;
});
};
})(jQuery);
<script type="text/javascript">
function SetEnd(txt) {
if (txt.createTextRange) {
//IE
var FieldRange = txt.createTextRange();
FieldRange.moveStart('character', txt.value.length);
FieldRange.collapse();
FieldRange.select();
}
else {
//Firefox and Opera
txt.focus();
var length = txt.value.length;
txt.setSelectionRange(length, length);
}
}
</script>
This function works for me in IE9, Firefox 6.x, and Opera 11.x
It's 2019 and none of the methods above worked for me, but this one did, taken from https://css-tricks.com/snippets/javascript/move-cursor-to-end-of-input/
function moveCursorToEnd(id) {
var el = document.getElementById(id)
el.focus()
if (typeof el.selectionStart == "number") {
el.selectionStart = el.selectionEnd = el.value.length;
} else if (typeof el.createTextRange != "undefined") {
var range = el.createTextRange();
range.collapse(false);
range.select();
}
}
<input id="myinput" type="text" />
Move cursor to end
I've tried the following with quite great success in chrome
$("input.focus").focus(function () {
var val = this.value,
$this = $(this);
$this.val("");
setTimeout(function () {
$this.val(val);
}, 1);
});
Quick rundown:
It takes every input field with the class focus on it, then stores the old value of the input field in a variable, afterwards it applies the empty string to the input field.
Then it waits 1 milisecond and puts in the old value again.
el.setSelectionRange(-1, -1);
https://codesandbox.io/s/peaceful-bash-x2mti
This method updates the HTMLInputElement.selectionStart, selectionEnd,
and selectionDirection properties in one call.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLInputElement/setSelectionRange
In other js methods -1 usually means (to the) last character. This is the case for this one too, but I couldn't find explicit mention of this behavior in the docs.
Simple. When editing or changing values, first put the focus then set value.
$("#catg_name").focus();
$("#catg_name").val(catg_name);
Still the intermediate variable is needed, (see var val=)
else the cursor behaves strange, we need it at the end.
<body onload="document.getElementById('userinput').focus();">
<form>
<input id="userinput" onfocus="var val=this.value; this.value=''; this.value= val;"
class=large type="text" size="10" maxlength="50" value="beans" name="myinput">
</form>
</body>
const end = input.value.length
input.setSelectionRange(end, end)
// 👇 scroll to the bottom if a textarea has long text
input.focus()
Try this one works with Vanilla JavaScript.
<input type="text" id="yourId" onfocus="let value = this.value; this.value = null; this.value=value" name="nameYouWant" class="yourClass" value="yourValue" placeholder="yourPlaceholder...">
In Js
document.getElementById("yourId").focus()
For all browsers for all cases:
function moveCursorToEnd(el) {
window.setTimeout(function () {
if (typeof el.selectionStart == "number") {
el.selectionStart = el.selectionEnd = el.value.length;
} else if (typeof el.createTextRange != "undefined") {
var range = el.createTextRange();
range.collapse(false);
range.select();
}
}, 1);
}
Timeout required if you need to move cursor from onFocus event handler
I like the accepted answer a lot, but it stopped working in Chrome. In Chrome, for the cursor to go to the end, input value needs to change. The solution is as follow:
<input id="search" type="text" value="mycurrtext" size="30"
onfocus="var value = this.value; this.value = null; this.value = value;" name="search"/>
document.querySelector('input').addEventListener('focus', e => {
const { value } = e.target;
e.target.setSelectionRange(value.length, value.length);
});
<input value="my text" />
In jQuery, that's
$(document).ready(function () {
$('input').focus(function () {
$(this).attr('value',$(this).attr('value'));
}
}
I just found that in iOS, setting textarea.textContent property will place the cursor at the end of the text in the textarea element every time. The behavior was a bug in my app, but seems to be something that you could use intentionally.
This problem is interesting. The most confusing thing about it is that no solution I found solved the problem completely.
+++++++ SOLUTION +++++++
You need a JS function, like this:
function moveCursorToEnd(obj) {
if (!(obj.updating)) {
obj.updating = true;
var oldValue = obj.value;
obj.value = '';
setTimeout(function(){ obj.value = oldValue; obj.updating = false; }, 100);
}
}
You need to call this guy in the onfocus and onclick events.
<input type="text" value="Test Field" onfocus="moveCursorToEnd(this)" onclick="moveCursorToEnd(this)">
IT WORKS ON ALL DEVICES AN BROWSERS!!!!
var valsrch = $('#search').val();
$('#search').val('').focus().val(valsrch);
Taking some of the answers .. making a single-line jquery.
$('#search').focus().val($('#search').val());
If the input field just needs a static default value I usually do this with jQuery:
$('#input').focus().val('Default value');
This seems to work in all browsers.
While this may be an old question with lots of answers, I ran across a similar issue and none of the answers were quite what I wanted and/or were poorly explained. The issue with selectionStart and selectionEnd properties is that they don't exist for input type number (while the question was asked for text type, I reckon it might help others who might have other input types that they need to focus). So if you don't know whether the input type the function will focus is a type number or not, you cannot use that solution.
The solution that works cross browser and for all input types is rather simple:
get and store the value of input in a variable
focus the input
set the value of input to the stored value
That way the cursor is at the end of the input element.
So all you'd do is something like this (using jquery, provided the element selector that one wishes to focus is accessible via 'data-focus-element' data attribute of the clicked element and the function executes after clicking on '.foo' element):
$('.foo').click(function() {
element_selector = $(this).attr('data-focus-element');
$focus = $(element_selector);
value = $focus.val();
$focus.focus();
$focus.val(value);
});
Why does this work? Simply, when the .focus() is called, the focus will be added to the beginning of the input element (which is the core problem here), ignoring the fact, that the input element already has a value in it. However, when the value of an input is changed, the cursor is automatically placed at the end of the value inside input element. So if you override the value with the same value that had been previously entered in the input, the value will look untouched, the cursor will, however, move to the end.
Super easy (you may have to focus on the input element)
inputEl = getElementById('inputId');
var temp = inputEl.value;
inputEl.value = '';
inputEl.value = temp;
Set the cursor when click on text area to the end of text...
Variation of this code is...ALSO works! for Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome..
In server-side code:
txtAddNoteMessage.Attributes.Add("onClick", "sendCursorToEnd('" & txtAddNoteMessage.ClientID & "');")
In Javascript:
function sendCursorToEnd(obj) {
var value = $(obj).val(); //store the value of the element
var message = "";
if (value != "") {
message = value + "\n";
};
$(obj).focus().val(message);
$(obj).unbind();
}
If you set the value first and then set the focus, the cursor will always appear at the end.
$("#search-button").click(function (event) {
event.preventDefault();
$('#textbox').val('this');
$("#textbox").focus();
return false;
});
Here is the fiddle to test
https://jsfiddle.net/5on50caf/1/
I wanted to put cursor at the end of a "div" element where contenteditable = true, and I got a solution with Xeoncross code:
<input type="button" value="Paste HTML" onclick="document.getElementById('test').focus(); pasteHtmlAtCaret('<b>INSERTED</b>'); ">
<div id="test" contenteditable="true">
Here is some nice text
</div>
And this function do magic:
function pasteHtmlAtCaret(html) {
var sel, range;
if (window.getSelection) {
// IE9 and non-IE
sel = window.getSelection();
if (sel.getRangeAt && sel.rangeCount) {
range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
range.deleteContents();
// Range.createContextualFragment() would be useful here but is
// non-standard and not supported in all browsers (IE9, for one)
var el = document.createElement("div");
el.innerHTML = html;
var frag = document.createDocumentFragment(), node, lastNode;
while ( (node = el.firstChild) ) {
lastNode = frag.appendChild(node);
}
range.insertNode(frag);
// Preserve the selection
if (lastNode) {
range = range.cloneRange();
range.setStartAfter(lastNode);
range.collapse(true);
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
}
}
} else if (document.selection && document.selection.type != "Control") {
// IE < 9
document.selection.createRange().pasteHTML(html);
}
}
Works fine for most browsers, please check it, this code puts text and put focus at the end of the text in div element (not input element)
https://jsfiddle.net/Xeoncross/4tUDk/
Thanks, Xeoncross
I also faced same problem. Finally this gonna work for me:
jQuery.fn.putCursorAtEnd = = function() {
return this.each(function() {
// Cache references
var $el = $(this),
el = this;
// Only focus if input isn't already
if (!$el.is(":focus")) {
$el.focus();
}
// If this function exists... (IE 9+)
if (el.setSelectionRange) {
// Double the length because Opera is inconsistent about whether a carriage return is one character or two.
var len = $el.val().length * 2;
// Timeout seems to be required for Blink
setTimeout(function() {
el.setSelectionRange(len, len);
}, 1);
} else {
// As a fallback, replace the contents with itself
// Doesn't work in Chrome, but Chrome supports setSelectionRange
$el.val($el.val());
}
// Scroll to the bottom, in case we're in a tall textarea
// (Necessary for Firefox and Chrome)
this.scrollTop = 999999;
});
};
This is how we can call this:
var searchInput = $("#searchInputOrTextarea");
searchInput
.putCursorAtEnd() // should be chainable
.on("focus", function() { // could be on any event
searchInput.putCursorAtEnd()
});
It's works for me in safari, IE, Chrome, Mozilla. On mobile devices I didn't tried this.
Check this solution!
//fn setCurPosition
$.fn.setCurPosition = function(pos) {
this.focus();
this.each(function(index, elem) {
if (elem.setSelectionRange) {
elem.setSelectionRange(pos, pos);
} else if (elem.createTextRange) {
var range = elem.createTextRange();
range.collapse(true);
range.moveEnd('character', pos);
range.moveStart('character', pos);
range.select();
}
});
return this;
};
// USAGE - Set Cursor ends
$('#str1').setCurPosition($('#str1').val().length);
// USAGE - Set Cursor at 7 position
// $('#str2').setCurPosition(7);
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<p>Set cursor at any position</p>
<p><input type="text" id="str1" value="my string here" /></p>
<p><input type="text" id="str2" value="my string here" /></p>
I took the best answers from here, and created a function that works well in Chrome.
You will need to wrap the logic in a timeout, because you have to wait for the focus to finish before accessing the selection
To place the cursor at the end, the selection start needs to be placed at the end
In order to scroll to the end of the input field, the scrollLeft needs to match the scrollWidth
/**
* Upon focus, set the cursor to the end of the text input
* #param {HTMLInputElement} inputEl - An HTML <input> element
*/
const setFocusEnd = (inputEl) => {
setTimeout(() => {
const { scrollWidth, value: { length } } = inputEl;
inputEl.setSelectionRange(length, length);
inputEl.scrollLeft = scrollWidth;
}, 0);
};
document
.querySelector('input')
.addEventListener('focus', (e) => setFocusEnd(e.target));
html, body {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
body {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
input:focus {
background-color: hsla(240, 100%, 95%, 1.0);
}
<input
type="text"
placeholder="Search..."
value="This is some really, really long text">
<input id="input_1">
<input id="input_2" type="hidden">
<script type="text/javascript">
//save input_1 value to input_2
$("#input_2").val($("#input_1").val());
//empty input_1 and add the saved input_2 into input_1
$("#input_1").val("").val($("#input_2").val()).focus();
</script>