Document.caretPositionFromPoint()

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The caretPositionFromPoint() property of the Document interface returns a CaretPosition object, containing the DOM node, along with the caret and caret's character offset within that node.

Syntax

caretPositionFromPoint(x, y);

Parameters

x

The horizontal coordinate of a point.

y

The vertical coordinate of a point.

Returns

A CaretPosition object.

Example

Click anywhere in the Demo paragraph below to insert a line break at the point where you click. The code for it is below the demo.

Demo

The code below first checks for document.caretRangeFromPoint support, but if the browser doesn't support that, the code then checks for document.caretPositionFromPoint, and uses that instead.

JavaScript

function insertBreakAtPoint(e) {
  let range;
  let textNode;
  let offset;

  if (document.caretRangeFromPoint) {
    range = document.caretRangeFromPoint(e.clientX, e.clientY);
    textNode = range.startContainer;
    offset = range.startOffset;
  } else if (document.caretPositionFromPoint) {
    range = document.caretPositionFromPoint(e.clientX, e.clientY);
    textNode = range.offsetNode;
    offset = range.offset;
  } else {
    document.body.textContent = "[This browser supports neither"
      + " document.caretRangeFromPoint"
      + " nor document.caretPositionFromPoint.]";
    return;
  }
  // Only split TEXT_NODEs
  if (textNode && textNode.nodeType == 3) {
    let replacement = textNode.splitText(offset);
    let br = document.createElement('br');
    textNode.parentNode.insertBefore(br, replacement);
  }
}

let paragraphs = document.getElementsByTagName("p");
for (let i = 0; i < paragraphs.length; i++) {
  paragraphs[i].addEventListener('click', insertBreakAtPoint, false);
}

HTML

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat,
sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.
Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>

Specifications

Specification
CSSOM View Module
# dom-document-caretpositionfrompoint

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also