Text

Baseline Widely available *

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

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

See full compatibility

The Text interface represents a text node in a DOM tree.

To understand what a text node is, consider the following document:

html

<html lang="en" class="e">
  <head>
    <title>Aliens?</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    Why yes.
  </body>
</html>

In that document, there are five text nodes, with the following contents:

"\n " (after the <head> start tag, a newline followed by four spaces)
"Aliens?" (the contents of the title element)
"\n " (after the </head> end tag, a newline followed by two spaces)
"\n " (after the <body> start tag, a newline followed by two spaces)
"\n Why yes.\n \n\n" (the contents of the body element)

Each of those text nodes is an object that has the properties and methods documented in this article.

Constructor

Text(): Returns a new Text node with the parameter as its textual content.

Instance properties

Inherits properties from its parents, CharacterData, Node, and EventTarget.

Text.assignedSlot Read only: Returns a HTMLSlotElement representing the <slot> the node is inserted in.
Text.wholeText Read only: Returns a string containing the text of all Text nodes logically adjacent to this Node, concatenated in document order.

Instance methods

Inherits methods from its parent, CharacterData, Node, and EventTarget.

Text.splitText: Breaks the node into two nodes at a specified offset.

Specifications

Specification
DOM # interface-text

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
`Text`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 1 (Release date: 2003-06-23) 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 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29) 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 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27) footnote Full support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 1 (Release date: 2008-09-23) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote Full support
`Text()` constructor	Chrome – Full support Chrome 29 (Release date: 2013-08-20) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 16 (Release date: 2017-10-17) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 24 (Release date: 2013-09-17) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 16 (Release date: 2013-08-27) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 8 (Release date: 2014-10-16) footnote Full support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 29 (Release date: 2013-08-21) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 24 (Release date: 2013-09-17) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 16 (Release date: 2013-09-18) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 8 (Release date: 2014-09-17) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 2 (Release date: 2014-10-17) 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 8 (Release date: 2014-09-17) footnote Full support
`assignedSlot`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 53 (Release date: 2016-08-31) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 79 (Release date: 2020-01-15) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 63 (Release date: 2018-10-23) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 40 (Release date: 2016-09-20) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 10 (Release date: 2016-09-20) footnote Full support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 53 (Release date: 2016-09-07) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 63 (Release date: 2018-10-23) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 41 (Release date: 2016-10-25) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 6 (Release date: 2017-08-23) footnote Full support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 53 (Release date: 2016-09-07) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 10 (Release date: 2016-09-13) footnote Full support
`getBoxQuads` Experimental	Chrome – No support Chrome footnote No support	Edge – No support Edge footnote No support	Firefox – No support Firefox 31 (Release date: 2014-07-22) disabled disabled From version 31 users must explicitly set the `layout.css.getBoxQuads.enabled` preference to `true`. To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera – No support Opera footnote No support	Safari – No support Safari footnote No support	Chrome Android – No support Chrome Android footnote No support	Firefox for Android – No support Firefox for Android footnote No support	Opera Android – No support Opera Android footnote No support	Safari on iOS – No support Safari on iOS footnote No support	Samsung Internet – No support Samsung Internet footnote No support	WebView Android – No support WebView Android footnote No support	WebView on iOS – No support WebView on iOS footnote No support
`splitText`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11) footnote footnote Before Chrome 30, the `offset` parameter was optional.	Edge – Full support Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20) footnote footnote Before Opera 17, the `offset` parameter was optional.	Safari – Full support Safari 1 (Release date: 2003-06-23) footnote footnote The `offset` parameter is optional.	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27) footnote footnote Before Chrome Android 30, the `offset` parameter was optional.	Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09) footnote footnote Before Opera 17, the `offset` parameter was optional.	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote footnote The `offset` parameter is optional.	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27) footnote footnote Before Samsung Internet 2.0, the `offset` parameter was optional.	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 1 (Release date: 2008-09-23) footnote footnote Before version 4.4, the `offset` parameter was optional.	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote footnote The `offset` parameter is optional.
`wholeText`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 2 (Release date: 2009-05-21) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 3.5 (Release date: 2009-06-30) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 4 (Release date: 2009-06-08) 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 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29) 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 3.2 (Release date: 2010-04-03) 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 3.2 (Release date: 2010-04-03) footnote Full support

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
: Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
: See implementation notes.
: User must explicitly enable this feature.