Sometimes, we want to get the parent element of a selected text with JavaScript.

In this article, we’ll look at how to get the parent element of a selected text with JavaScript.

How to get the parent element of a selected text with JavaScript?

To get the parent element of a selected text with JavaScript, we can use the getSelection method.

For instance, we write:

<button>
  get selection
</button>
<div>
  <section>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
  </section>
</div>

to add a button and some text.

Then we write:

const button = document.querySelector('button')
button.onclick = () => {
  console.log(window.getSelection().anchorNode.parentElement)
}

to select the button with querySelector.

And then we set the button.onclick property to a function that gets the selection with window.getSelection.

Then we use the anchorNode.parentElement property from the returned object to get the parent node of the selected text.

Conclusion

To get the parent element of a selected text with JavaScript, we can use the getSelection method.