Select all contents of textbox when it receives focus Vanilla JS or jQuery

Question

What is a Vanilla JS or jQuery solution that will select all of the contents of a textbox when the textbox receives focus

User · Answer

onclick  this focus   this select

User · Answer

x000D   x000D   lt input type  text  onfocus  this select     onmouseup  return false   value  test    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

document  ready function          input type text    focus   select

User · Answer

My solution is next   var mouseUp    document  ready function           inputSelector  focus function             this select                 mousedown function              if    this  is   focus                mouseUp   true                    else             mouseUp   false                          mouseup function              return mouseUp                 So mouseup will work usually  but will not make unselect after getting focus by input

User · Answer

I know inline code is bad style  but I didn t want to put this into a  js file  Works without jQuery    lt input type  text  value  blah blah  onfocus  this select    this selAll 1   onmouseup  if this selAll  0  return true  this selAll 0  return false   gt  lt  input gt

User · Answer

This worked for me  posting since it is not in answers but in a comment        textBox   focus   select

User · Answer

Like  Travis and  Mari  I wanted to autoselect when the user clicked in  which means preventing the default behaviour of a mouseup event  but not prevent the user from clicking around  The solution I came up with  which works in IE11  Chrome 45  Opera 32 and Firefox 29  these are the browsers I currently have installed   is based on the sequence of events involved in a mouse click   When you click on a text input that does not have focus  you get these events  among others     mousedown  In response to your click  Default handling raises focus if necessary and sets selection start  focus  As part of the default handling of mousedown  mouseup  The completion of your click  whose default handling will set the selection end    When you click on a text input that already has focus  the focus event is skipped  As  Travis and  Mari both astutely noticed  the default handling of mouseup needs to be prevented only if the focus event occurs  However  as there is no  focus didn t happen  event  we need to infer this  which we can do within the mousedown handler    Mari s solution requires that jQuery be imported  which I want to avoid   Travis s solution does this by inspecting document activeElement  I don t know why exactly his solution doesn t work across browsers  but there is another way to track whether the text input has focus  simply follow its focus and blur events   Here is the code that works for me       var blockMouseUp   false      var customerInputFocused   false       txtCustomer onfocus         function                    try                     txtCustomer selectionStart   0            txtCustomer selectionEnd   txtCustomer value length                    catch  error                      txtCustomer select                       customerInputFocused   true                txtCustomer onblur         function                    customerInputFocused   false                txtCustomer onmousedown         function                    blockMouseUp    customerInputFocused                txtCustomer onmouseup         function                    if  blockMouseUp            return false             I hope this is of help to someone   -

User · Answer

This will also work on iOS    lt input type  text  onclick  this focus    this setSelectionRange 0  9999      gt    https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Web API HTMLInputElement select

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text   focus function       this  select

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text   focus function       this  select

User · Answer

input   focus function          var self     this       setTimeout function              self select           1                 Edit  Per  DavidG s request  I can t provide details because I m not sure why this works  but I believe it has something to do with the focus event propagating up or down or whatever it does and the input element getting the notification it s received focus  Setting the timeout gives the element a moment to realize it s done so

User · Answer

The answers here helped me up to a point  but I had a problem on HTML5 Number input fields when clicking the up down buttons in Chrome   If you click one of the buttons  and left the mouse over the button the number would keep changing as if you were holding the mouse button because the mouseup was being thrown away   I solved this by removing the mouseup handler as soon as it had been triggered as below          input number   focus function              var  elem     this            elem select   mouseup function  e                e preventDefault                 elem unbind e type                         Hope this helps people in the future

User · Answer

If you chain the events together I believe it eliminates the need to use  one as suggested elsewhere in this thread   Example      input your element   focus  function            this  select   mouseup  function  e            e preventDefault

User · Answer

I know inline code is bad style  but I didn t want to put this into a  js file  Works without jQuery    lt input type  text  value  blah blah  onfocus  this select    this selAll 1   onmouseup  if this selAll  0  return true  this selAll 0  return false   gt  lt  input gt

User · Answer

x000D   x000D   lt input type  text  onfocus  this select     onmouseup  return false   value  test    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

This is not just a Chrome Safari issue  I experienced a quite similar behavior with Firefox 18 0 1  The funny part is that this does not happen on MSIE  The problem here is the first mouseup event that forces to unselect the input content  so just ignore the first occurence       text   focus function          this  one  mouseup   function event           event preventDefault           select          The timeOut approach causes a strange behavior  and blocking every mouseup event you can not remove the selection clicking again on the input element

User · Answer

jQuery is not JavaScript which is more easy to use in some cases   Look at this example    lt textarea rows  10  cols  50  onclick  this focus   this select    gt Text is here lt  textarea gt    Source  CSS Tricks  MDN

User · Answer

I know there are already a lot of answers here - but this one is missing so far  a solution which also works with ajax generated content     function           document  on  focus    input text   function                this  select

User · Answer

This is not just a Chrome Safari issue  I experienced a quite similar behavior with Firefox 18 0 1  The funny part is that this does not happen on MSIE  The problem here is the first mouseup event that forces to unselect the input content  so just ignore the first occurence       text   focus function          this  one  mouseup   function event           event preventDefault           select          The timeOut approach causes a strange behavior  and blocking every mouseup event you can not remove the selection clicking again on the input element

User · Answer

x000D   x000D   lt input type  text  onfocus  this select     onmouseup  return false   value  test    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

my solution is to use a timeout  Seems to work ok     input type text    focus function         var  this   this      setTimeout function              this select           10

User · Answer

onclick  this focus   this select

User · Answer

If you chain the events together I believe it eliminates the need to use  one as suggested elsewhere in this thread   Example      input your element   focus  function            this  select   mouseup  function  e            e preventDefault

User · Answer

I m kind of late to the party  but this works perfectly in IE11  Chrome  Firefox  without messing up mouseup  and without JQuery    inputElement addEventListener  focus   function  e        var target   e currentTarget      if  target            target select            target addEventListener  mouseup   function  tempoMouseUp event                event preventDefault                target removeEventListener  mouseup    tempoMouseUp

User · Answer

jQuery is not JavaScript which is more easy to use in some cases   Look at this example    lt textarea rows  10  cols  50  onclick  this focus   this select    gt Text is here lt  textarea gt    Source  CSS Tricks  MDN

User · Answer

I m kind of late to the party  but this works perfectly in IE11  Chrome  Firefox  without messing up mouseup  and without JQuery    inputElement addEventListener  focus   function  e        var target   e currentTarget      if  target            target select            target addEventListener  mouseup   function  tempoMouseUp event                event preventDefault                target removeEventListener  mouseup    tempoMouseUp

User · Answer

Note  If you are programming in ASP NET  you can run the script using ScriptManager RegisterStartupScript in C     ScriptManager RegisterStartupScript txtField  txtField GetType    txtField AccessKey       MainContent txtField   focus function       this  select          true      Or just type the script in the HTML page suggested in the other answers

User · Answer

Like  Travis and  Mari  I wanted to autoselect when the user clicked in  which means preventing the default behaviour of a mouseup event  but not prevent the user from clicking around  The solution I came up with  which works in IE11  Chrome 45  Opera 32 and Firefox 29  these are the browsers I currently have installed   is based on the sequence of events involved in a mouse click   When you click on a text input that does not have focus  you get these events  among others     mousedown  In response to your click  Default handling raises focus if necessary and sets selection start  focus  As part of the default handling of mousedown  mouseup  The completion of your click  whose default handling will set the selection end    When you click on a text input that already has focus  the focus event is skipped  As  Travis and  Mari both astutely noticed  the default handling of mouseup needs to be prevented only if the focus event occurs  However  as there is no  focus didn t happen  event  we need to infer this  which we can do within the mousedown handler    Mari s solution requires that jQuery be imported  which I want to avoid   Travis s solution does this by inspecting document activeElement  I don t know why exactly his solution doesn t work across browsers  but there is another way to track whether the text input has focus  simply follow its focus and blur events   Here is the code that works for me       var blockMouseUp   false      var customerInputFocused   false       txtCustomer onfocus         function                    try                     txtCustomer selectionStart   0            txtCustomer selectionEnd   txtCustomer value length                    catch  error                      txtCustomer select                       customerInputFocused   true                txtCustomer onblur         function                    customerInputFocused   false                txtCustomer onmousedown         function                    blockMouseUp    customerInputFocused                txtCustomer onmouseup         function                    if  blockMouseUp            return false             I hope this is of help to someone   -

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text   focus function       this  select

User · Answer

This will work  Try this -    lt input id  textField1  onfocus  this select    onmouseup  return false    gt     Works in Safari IE 9 and Chrome  I did not get a chance to test in Firefox though

User · Answer

x000D   x000D   lt input type  text  onfocus  this select     onmouseup  return false   value  test    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

input   focus function          var self     this       setTimeout function              self select           1                 Edit  Per  DavidG s request  I can t provide details because I m not sure why this works  but I believe it has something to do with the focus event propagating up or down or whatever it does and the input element getting the notification it s received focus  Setting the timeout gives the element a moment to realize it s done so

User · Answer

My solution is next   var mouseUp    document  ready function           inputSelector  focus function             this select                 mousedown function              if    this  is   focus                mouseUp   true                    else             mouseUp   false                          mouseup function              return mouseUp                 So mouseup will work usually  but will not make unselect after getting focus by input

User · Answer

This will work  Try this -    lt input id  textField1  onfocus  this select    onmouseup  return false    gt     Works in Safari IE 9 and Chrome  I did not get a chance to test in Firefox though

User · Answer

The answers here helped me up to a point  but I had a problem on HTML5 Number input fields when clicking the up down buttons in Chrome   If you click one of the buttons  and left the mouse over the button the number would keep changing as if you were holding the mouse button because the mouseup was being thrown away   I solved this by removing the mouseup handler as soon as it had been triggered as below          input number   focus function              var  elem     this            elem select   mouseup function  e                e preventDefault                 elem unbind e type                         Hope this helps people in the future

User · Answer

my solution is to use a timeout  Seems to work ok     input type text    focus function         var  this   this      setTimeout function              this select           10

User · Answer

Note  If you are programming in ASP NET  you can run the script using ScriptManager RegisterStartupScript in C     ScriptManager RegisterStartupScript txtField  txtField GetType    txtField AccessKey       MainContent txtField   focus function       this  select          true      Or just type the script in the HTML page suggested in the other answers

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text            focus function        this  select                 mouseup function  e   e preventDefault

User · Answer

document  ready function          input type text    focus   select

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text            focus function        this  select                 mouseup function  e   e preventDefault

User · Answer

I was able to slightly improve Zach s answer by incorporating a few function calls  The problem with that answer is that it disables onMouseUp completely  thereby preventing you from clicking around in the textbox once it has focus   Here is my code    lt input type  text  onfocus  this select    onMouseUp  javascript TextBoxMouseUp     onMouseDown  javascript TextBoxMouseDown       gt    lt script type  text javascript  gt      var doMouseUp   true      function TextBoxMouseDown             doMouseUp   this    document activeElement          return doMouseUp            function TextBoxMouseUp             if  doMouseUp            return true            else               doMouseUp   true              return false                   lt  script gt    This is a slight improvement over Zach s answer  It works perfectly in IE  doesn t work at all in Chrome  and works with alternating success in FireFox  literally every other time   If someone has an idea of how to make it work reliably in FF or Chrome  please share    Anyway  I figured I d share what I could to make this a little nicer

User · Answer

This will also work on iOS    lt input type  text  onclick  this focus    this setSelectionRange 0  9999      gt    https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Web API HTMLInputElement select

User · Answer

What is a JavaScript or jQuery solution that will select all of the contents of a textbox when the textbox receives focus    You only need to add the following attribute     onfocus  this select      For example    lt input type  text  value  sometext  onfocus  this select    gt     Honestly I have no clue why you would need anything else

User · Answer

I sow this one some where   work perfectly                   input   on  focus   function  e                      this                    element  one  mouseup   function                                this  select                            return false                                                 select

User · Answer

This worked for me  posting since it is not in answers but in a comment        textBox   focus   select

User · Answer

What is a JavaScript or jQuery solution that will select all of the contents of a textbox when the textbox receives focus    You only need to add the following attribute     onfocus  this select      For example    lt input type  text  value  sometext  onfocus  this select    gt     Honestly I have no clue why you would need anything else

User · Answer

document  ready function            input text   focus function       this  select

User · Answer

HTML   Enter Your Text    lt input type  quot text quot  id  quot text-filed quot  value  quot test quot  gt   Using JS   var textFiled   document getElementById  quot text-filed quot    textFiled addEventListener  quot focus quot   function     this select         Using JQuery      quot  text-filed quot   focus function       this  select          Using React JS   In the respective component -  lt input   type  quot text quot    value  quot test quot    onFocus  e   gt  e target select      gt

User · Answer

I know there are already a lot of answers here - but this one is missing so far  a solution which also works with ajax generated content     function           document  on  focus    input text   function                this  select

User · Answer

I sow this one some where   work perfectly                   input   on  focus   function  e                      this                    element  one  mouseup   function                                this  select                            return false                                                 select

User · Answer

HTML   Enter Your Text    lt input type  quot text quot  id  quot text-filed quot  value  quot test quot  gt   Using JS   var textFiled   document getElementById  quot text-filed quot    textFiled addEventListener  quot focus quot   function     this select         Using JQuery      quot  text-filed quot   focus function       this  select          Using React JS   In the respective component -  lt input   type  quot text quot    value  quot test quot    onFocus  e   gt  e target select      gt

User · Answer

I was able to slightly improve Zach s answer by incorporating a few function calls  The problem with that answer is that it disables onMouseUp completely  thereby preventing you from clicking around in the textbox once it has focus   Here is my code    lt input type  text  onfocus  this select    onMouseUp  javascript TextBoxMouseUp     onMouseDown  javascript TextBoxMouseDown       gt    lt script type  text javascript  gt      var doMouseUp   true      function TextBoxMouseDown             doMouseUp   this    document activeElement          return doMouseUp            function TextBoxMouseUp             if  doMouseUp            return true            else               doMouseUp   true              return false                   lt  script gt    This is a slight improvement over Zach s answer  It works perfectly in IE  doesn t work at all in Chrome  and works with alternating success in FireFox  literally every other time   If someone has an idea of how to make it work reliably in FF or Chrome  please share    Anyway  I figured I d share what I could to make this a little nicer

[javascript] Select all contents of textbox when it receives focus (Vanilla JS or jQuery)

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