Copy to clipboard

OSCC · JavaScript, Browser, String, Event · Jan 11, 2022

Copies a string to the clipboard. Only works as a result of user action (i.e. inside a click event listener).

  • Create a new <textarea> element, fill it with the supplied data and add it to the HTML document.
  • Use Selection.getRangeAt()to store the selected range (if any).
  • Use Document.execCommand() to copy to the clipboard.
  • Remove the <textarea> element from the HTML document.
  • Finally, use Selection.addRange() to recover the original selected range (if any).
  • Note: You can use the asynchronous Clipboard API in most current browsers. You can find out more about it in the copyToClipboardAsync snippet.
const copyToClipboard = str => {
  const el = document.createElement('textarea');
  el.value = str;
  el.setAttribute('readonly', '');
  el.style.position = 'absolute';
  el.style.left = '-9999px';
  document.body.appendChild(el);
  const selected =
    document.getSelection().rangeCount > 0
      ? document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0)
      : false;
  el.select();
  document.execCommand('copy');
  document.body.removeChild(el);
  if (selected) {
    document.getSelection().removeAllRanges();
    document.getSelection().addRange(selected);
  }
};
copyToClipboard('Lorem ipsum'); // 'Lorem ipsum' copied to clipboard.

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