How to select a DOM element in JavaScript?

Question

I want the user to be able to select the contents of a element by clicking it once. The code would look like this:

<div onclick="this.xyz()">...</div>

The question is: what method goes where I wrote xyz? I've searched for things like "DOM select object," but the answer is a needle hidden in a haystack of irrelevant hits (or not).

What do you mean "select the contents"? Do you want the contents passed to a function? Or do you want to copy them to the clipboard? — milestyle
– milestyle, Commented Feb 20, 2014 at 17:34

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-20 17:40:33Z

1

Basically you'd want:

<div onclick="var contents = this.innerText;">foo bar</div>

which would set contents equal to foo bar. Of course, this isn't exactly cross-platform compatible. Firefox expects .textContent instead of .innerText. If you're not opposed to using jquery, then

<div onclick="var contents = $(this).text()">foo bar</div>

would do just as well and be cross-platform.

answered Feb 20, 2014 at 17:40

Marc B

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