Window: getSelection() method

{{APIRef("Selection API")}}

The getSelection() method of the {{domxref("Window")}} interface returns the {{domxref("Selection")}} object associated with the window's {{domxref("document")}}, representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.

window.getSelection() is a shorthand for window.document.getSelection(). Read {{domxref("Document.getSelection()")}} for more information.

Syntax

getSelection()

Parameters

None.

Return value

A {{domxref("Selection")}} object, or null if the associated document has no browsing context (for example, the window is an {{htmlelement("iframe")}} that is not attached to a document).

When called on an {{htmlelement("iframe")}} that is not displayed (e.g., where display: none is set) Firefox returns null, whereas other browsers returns a {{domxref("Selection")}} object with {{domxref("Selection.type")}} set to None.

Examples

Getting a Selection object

const selection = window.getSelection();
const selRange = selection.getRangeAt(0);
// do stuff with the range

console.log(selection); // Selection object

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• Selection API
• {{domxref("Selection")}}
• {{domxref("Range")}}
• {{domxref("Document.getSelection()")}}
• {{domxref("HTMLInputElement.setSelectionRange()")}}