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Copy text to the clipboard

Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Created
24 Feb, 2020
Category
Level 2 — Intermediate
Assume that we want to copy a given text, `text`, to the clipboard.
In order to do that, we create a fake `textarea` element with value as `text`. Next, we select the content and execute the "Copy" command.
js
// Create a fake textarea
const textAreaEle = document.createElement('textarea');

// Reset styles
textAreaEle.style.border = '0';
textAreaEle.style.padding = '0';
textAreaEle.style.margin = '0';

// Set the absolute position
// User won't see the element
textAreaEle.style.position = 'absolute';
textAreaEle.style.left = '-9999px';
textAreaEle.style.top = `${document.documentElement.scrollTop}px`;

// Set the value
textAreaEle.value = text;

// Append the textarea to body
document.body.appendChild(textAreaEle);

// Focus and select the text
textAreaEle.focus();
textAreaEle.select();

// Execute the "copy" command
try {
document.execCommand('copy');
} catch (err) {
// Unable to copy
} finally {
// Remove the textarea
document.body.removeChild(textAreaEle);
}

See also

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