[removed] cross browser solution for selecting all text inside a textbox on focus

Question

I\'m after the following functionality:

• user clicks on or tabs into a textbox
• all text in the textbox is selected, unless the textbox already had focu

Answer 1

If you can use jQuery then you can do something like;

$("#myInputField").focus(function(){
    // Select input field contents
    this.select();
});

// Add this behavior to all text fields
$("input[type=text]").focus(function(){
    // Select field contents
    this.select();
});

Taken from HERE

Answer 2

You should remember to do a return false; event.stopPropagation(); event.preventDefault() like so:

$('input[type="text"]').live('click', function (event) {
    this.select();
    event.stopPropagation();
    event.preventDefault();
    return false;
});

http://jsfiddle.net/7rYLV/

Answer 3

Just delay it by a millisecond with setTimeout:

$('input[type="text"]').live('focus', function() {
    var inp = this;
    setTimeout(function() {
        inp.select();
    }, 1);
});

http://jsfiddle.net/HmQxZ/14/

What's happening is some other browser event is setting the selection after you've selected the text. So, by waiting a millisecond, you let all the browser events finish, and then select the text. Nothing will undo it now.

Answer 4

You may want to add

event.preventDefault();
return false;

to your function (the first one). That may fix the other browsers.

Also, add event to the function sig:

$('input[type="text"]').live('focus', function (event) {