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Text.splitText

The Text.splitText() method breaks the Text node into two nodes at the specified offset, keeping both nodes in the tree as siblings.

After the split, the current node contains all the content up to the specified offset point, and a newly created node of the same type contains the remaining text. The newly created node is returned to the caller. If the original node had a parent, the new node is inserted as the next sibling of the original node. If the offset is equal to the length of the original node, the newly created node has no data.

Separated text nodes can be concatenated using the Node.normalize() method.

A DOMException with a value of INDEX_SIZE_ERR is thrown if the specified offset is negative or is greater than the number of 16-bit units in the node's text; a DOMException with a value of NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR is thrown if the node is read only.

Syntax

replacementNode = textnode.splitText(offset)

Example

In this example, a <p> text node will be split into two text nodes and a <span> inserted between them.

<body>
  <p id="p">foobar</p>

  <script type="text/javascript">
    var p = document.getElementById('p');
    var textnode = p.firstChild;

    // split between foo and bar
    var replacementNode = textnode.splitText(3);

    // creating a span with ' span contents '
    var span = document.createElement('span');
    span.appendChild(document.createTextNode(' span contents '));

    // adding the span before 'bar'
    p.insertBefore(span, replacementNode);

    // the result is <p id="p">foo<span> span contents </span>bar</p>
  </script>
</body>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM The definition of 'Text.splitText' in that specification.	Living Standard	No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification The definition of 'Text.splitText' in that specification.	Obsolete	No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification The definition of 'Text.splitText' in that specification.	Obsolete	No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'Text.splitText' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	1 1 Before Chrome 30, the `offset` argument was optional.	Yes	1	Yes	Yes Yes Before Opera 17, the `offset` argument was optional.	Yes Yes The `offset` argument is optional.

	Mobile
	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Edge Mobile	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	iOS Safari	Samsung Internet
Basic support	Yes Yes Before version 4.4, the `offset` argument was optional.	18 18 Before Chrome 30, the `offset` argument was optional.	?	4	Yes Yes Before Opera 17, the `offset` argument was optional.	Yes Yes The `offset` argument is optional.	?

Text.splitText

Syntax

Example

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

See also