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>
I'm not good at scripting and did the following by some trial and error. It seems to be working, but I wonder if it's the right way to reset the text field if there's a value:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Reset</title>
<style>
</style>
</head>
<body>
<input type="text" id="box">
<input type="button" value="Reset" onclick="zero();">
<script>
var box = document.getElementById('box');
function zero() {
if (box.value && confirm('Sure?')) {
box.value = '';
alert('Done!');
}
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Let me outline some problems in your code - you stated you are looking for the right way.
You are using the outdated inline event model (putting Javascript into HTML attributes), which has several drawbacks. You said you are not good in scripting. If you want to learn it, you could learn it the right way, you have nothing to lose. I suggest using addEventListener.
You could make your function reusable. In its current state, it is only useful to reset a very specific input element, and this is not really what functions are for.
I created a quick little example, for illustration.
In the HTML I removed the inline onclick. I added an id for the button to be able to reference it, and added a data-reset attribute (HTML5 data- attributes), in which we can store the id for the element the button will reset:
<input type="text" id="box">
<input id="reset-button" type="button" value="Reset" data-reset="box" />
And here comes the new JS, commented:
//get the reset button from the DOM
var resetButton = document.getElementById('reset-button');
//add a click event listener to it, our reset function will handle the event
resetButton.addEventListener('click', reset);
//and the reset function
function reset() {
//`this` refers to the clicked button - we query the data- attribute
var inputId = this.getAttribute('data-reset');
//get the right input element
var input = document.getElementById(inputId);
//and then what you already had
if (input.value && confirm('Sure?')) {
input.value = '';
alert('Done!');
}
}
Working demo
Now the code uses the modern event model, and the function is reusable on any other button or for a different text field - you just have to change the data- attribute.
I don't say this is the very very best way, but I wanted to keep it easy and understandable.
function zero() {
var box = document.getElementById('box');
if (box.value && confirm('Sure?')) {
box.value = '';
alert('Done!');
}
}
Your code is fine, with the only exception of moving the box variable into the function scope (instead of global scope) if you only need to reference it there (better memory management as it will be collected as garbage when the function is done executing).
You are getting the input value outside of the function which is wrong.
function zero() {
var box = document.getElementById('box');
if (box.value != ""){
if(confirm('Sure?')){
box.value = '';
alert('Done!');
}
}
}
Demo
This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
What is the best way to emulate an HTML input “maxlength” attribute on an HTML textarea?
My question is can a <textarea > be configured only to accept a certain number of characters? I can do this in the following JavaScript, but the person for whom I am designing this page does not want a status field.
My current way of doing things is I have a <textarea > that is part of a form that uses a nice JavaScript function to fill a message in a status box.
I also read SO and found Alerts and sounds really aren't the way to alert people, so the following code changes background color (and restores when appropriate) when there is an error.
Here is that code:
// Checks Form element TransDesc for overruns past 255 characters.
function warnOverDescLen()
{
var misc_text =
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["TransDesc"].value;
var alert_text =
"You cannot enter more than 255 characters. Please remove some information.";
var rc = true;
if(255 < misc_text.length)
{
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["trans_status"].value
= alert_text;
misc_text = misc_text.substring(0, 253);
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["TransDesc"].value
= misc_text;
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["trans_status"].style.backgroundColor
= "pink";
}
else
{
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["trans_status"].value
= "";
document.forms["InvGenPayTickets"]["trans_status"].style.backgroundColor
= "lightgoldenrodyellow";
}
return rc;
}
<textarea rows="4" cols="60" name="TransDesc" id="TransDesc"
onkeypress="return warnOverDescLen();" ></textarea>
<span style="color: #50081E; font-weight: bold">Status</span>
<br />
<input type=text name="trans_status" id="trans_status" maxwidth="50"
size="65" />
This is a solution for HTML5, not supported by IE9 or earlier (according to this):
<textarea maxlength="255"></textarea>
Since you probably can't drop support for IE9 (and maybe even IE8), it's recommended you couple that with JavaScript, preventing the default behavior for the keydown and paste events on the textarea, as standup75 suggested.
Here is how to do that with plain JavaScript:
<textarea id="txtarea" maxlength="255"></textarea>
<script>
var field = document.getElementById('txtarea');
if(field.addEventListener) {
field.addEventListener('keydown', enforceMaxlength);
field.addEventListener('paste', enforceMaxlength);
} else {
// IE6-8
field.attachEvent('onkeydown', enforceMaxlength);
field.attachEvent('onpaste', enforceMaxlength);
}
function enforceMaxlength(evt) {
var maxLength = 255;
if(this.value.length >= maxLength) {
evt.preventDefault()
}
}
</script>
http://jsfiddle.net/snJwn/
HTML5 offers the maxLength attribute. Otherwise, you'd need some javascript, in jQuery, you'd do something like
maxLength = 50;
$("textarea").on("keydown paste", function(e){
if ($(this).val().length>=maxLength) e.preventDefault();
});
you can use the maxlength="255" (it specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in the element.)
or you can also do this by the jquery here i found the tutorial
html
<textarea cols="30" rows="5" maxlength="10"></textarea>
jquery
jQuery(function($) {
// ignore these keys
var ignore = [8,9,13,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,46];
// use keypress instead of keydown as that's the only
// place keystrokes could be canceled in Opera
var eventName = 'keypress';
// handle textareas with maxlength attribute
$('textarea[maxlength]')
// this is where the magic happens
.live(eventName, function(event) {
var self = $(this),
maxlength = self.attr('maxlength'),
code = $.data(this, 'keycode');
// check if maxlength has a value.
// The value must be greater than 0
if (maxlength && maxlength > 0) {
// continue with this keystroke if maxlength
// not reached or one of the ignored keys were pressed.
return ( self.val().length < maxlength
|| $.inArray(code, ignore) !== -1 );
}
})
// store keyCode from keydown event for later use
.live('keydown', function(event) {
$.data(this, 'keycode', event.keyCode || event.which);
});
});
Live example
i would like to replicate that you see a regular input text and when you click it changes into textarea.
is this a hidden layer or is it actually changing the input to textarea? how to do it?
I do believe it's always a textarea and on focus they just change the height of the textarea.
Edit: yes, it is. They use scripting to do everything with a textarea, there is no input field.
<textarea onfocus='CSS.addClass("c4b900e3aebfdd6a671453", "UIComposer_STATE_INPUT_FOCUSED");CSS.removeClass("c4b900e3aebfdd6a671453_buttons", "hidden_elem");window.UIComposer && UIComposer.focusInstance("c4b900e3aebfdd6a671453");' id="c4b900e3aebfdd6a671453_input" class="UIComposer_TextArea DOMControl_placeholder" name="status" title="What's on your mind?" placeholder="What's on your mind?">
What's on your mind?
</textarea>
One method that I found was to have a text area that begins with a smaller width and height and then to dynamically resize it.
function sz(t) {
a = t.value.split('\n');
b=1;
for (x=0;x < a.length; x++) {
if (a[x].length >= t.cols) b+= Math.floor(a[x].length/t.cols);
}
b+= a.length;
if (b > t.rows) t.rows = b;
}
then you would call your function with an onclick event
onclick="function sz(this)"
I found this here
Fellgall Javascript
One problem that he does mention is that this only functions on browsers that support it.
You can combine the jQuery widget you can find here with some coding
Example:
<div id="myform">
<form>
<textarea></textarea>
<button type="submit" style="display:none;">Post</button>
</form>
</div>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
var widget = $('#myform textarea');
var button = $('#myform button');
var tarea = widget[0];
// turn the textarea into an expandable one
widget.expandingTextArea();
var nullArea = true;
tarea.value = "What's on your mind?";
widget.focus(function() {
button.css('display', 'block');
if (nullArea) {
tarea.value = "";
nullArea = false;
}
});
widget.blur(function() {
if ($.trim(tarea.value) == "") {
tarea.value = "What's on your mind?";
button.css('display', 'none');
nullArea = true;
}
});
});
</script>
This code will hide by default the post button and will show it only when the textarea is focused or when you already have written something into it (you may want to hide/show a div instead or anything you want).
If jQuery is an option for you at all, there's a jQuery plugin that does just this called Jeditable.
Check out the demos here.
One way to do this is to code a dynamic textarea. This article explains how to do it: http://www.felgall.com/jstip45.htm
Another way to do it is to change the type of the object. Let's say you place your input text in a div tag (its ID being "commentBox". The code would then be:
//when you click on the textbox
function makeTextArea()
{
document.forms[0].getElementById("commentBox").innerHTML = "<textarea id=\"comments\" onBlur=\"backToTextBox()\"></textarea>";
document.forms[0].getElementById("comments").focus();
}
//when you click outside of the textarea
function backToTextBox()
{
document.forms[0].getElementById("commentBox").innerHTML = "<input type=\"text\" id=\"comments\" onFocus=\"makeTextArea()\"/>";
}