HTMLInputElement: selectionDirection property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since November 2015.

See full compatibility

The selectionDirection property of the HTMLInputElement interface is a string that indicates the direction in which the user is selecting the text.

Value

A string. It can have one of the following values:

forward: The user is extending the selection towards the end of the input text.
backward: The user is extending the selection towards the start of the input text.
none: The user is not extending the selection.

Note: On Windows, the direction indicates the position of the caret relative to the selection: a "forward" selection has the caret at the end of the selection and a "backward" selection has the caret at the start of the selection. Windows has no "none" direction.

Note: On Mac, the direction indicates which end of the selection is affected when the user adjusts the size of the selection using the arrow keys with the Shift modifier: the "forward" direction means the end of the selection is modified, and the "backward" direction means the start of the selection is modified. The "none" direction is the default on Mac, it indicates that no particular direction has yet been selected. The user sets the direction implicitly when first adjusting the selection, based on which directional arrow key was used.

Examples

HTML

html

<label for="selectionDirection">selectionDirection property</label>
<input type="text" id="selectionDirection" value="MDN" />
<p id="direction"></p>

JavaScript

const textSelectionDirection = document.querySelector("#selectionDirection");
const pConsole = document.querySelector("#direction");
pConsole.textContent = `Selection direction : ${textSelectionDirection.selectionDirection}`;

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML # dom-textarea/input-selectiondirection-dev

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`selectionDirection`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 15 (Release date: 2011-10-25) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 13 (Release date: 2015-11-12) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 8 (Release date: 2011-11-08) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 6 (Release date: 2012-07-25) footnote Full support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 8 (Release date: 2011-11-08) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27) footnote Full support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10) footnote Full support

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Full support: Full support

HTMLInputElement: selectionDirection property

Legend