IE's document.selection.createRange doesn't include leading or trailing blank lines

Question

I\'m trying to extract the exact selection and cursor location from a textarea. As usual, what\'s easy in most browsers is not in IE.

I\'m using this:

Answer 1

A jquery plugin to get selection index start and end in text area. The above javascript codes didnt work for IE7 and IE8 and gave very inconsistent results, so I have written this small jquery plugin. Allows to temporarily save start and end index of the selection and hightlight the selection at a later time.

A working example and brief version is here: http://jsfiddle.net/hYuzk/3/

A more details version with comments etc. is here: http://jsfiddle.net/hYuzk/4/

        // Cross browser plugins to set or get selection/caret position in textarea, input fields etc for IE7,IE8,IE9, FF, Chrome, Safari etc 
        $.fn.extend({ 
            // Gets or sets a selection or caret position in textarea, input field etc. 
            // Usage Example: select text from index 2 to 5 --> $('#myTextArea').caretSelection({start: 2, end: 5}); 
            //                get selected text or caret position --> $('#myTextArea').caretSelection(); 
            //                if start and end positions are the same, caret position will be set instead o fmaking a selection 
            caretSelection : function(options) 
            { 
            if(options && !isNaN(options.start) && !isNaN(options.end)) 
            { 
            this.setCaretSelection(options); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
            return this.getCaretSelection(); 
            } 
            }, 
            setCaretSelection : function(options) 
            { 
            var inp = this[0]; 
            if(inp.createTextRange) 
            { 
            var selRange = inp.createTextRange(); 
            selRange.collapse(true); 
            selRange.moveStart('character', options.start); 
            selRange.moveEnd('character',options.end - options.start); 
            selRange.select(); 
            } 
            else if(inp.setSelectionRange) 
            { 
            inp.focus(); 
            inp.setSelectionRange(options.start, options.end); 
            } 
            }, 
            getCaretSelection: function() 
            { 
            var inp = this[0], start = 0, end = 0; 
            if(!isNaN(inp.selectionStart)) 
            { 
            start = inp.selectionStart; 
            end = inp.selectionEnd; 
            } 
            else if( inp.createTextRange ) 
            { 
            var inpTxtLen = inp.value.length, jqueryTxtLen = this.val().length; 
            var inpRange = inp.createTextRange(), collapsedRange = inp.createTextRange(); 

            inpRange.moveToBookmark(document.selection.createRange().getBookmark()); 
            collapsedRange.collapse(false); 

            start = inpRange.compareEndPoints('StartToEnd', collapsedRange) > -1 ? jqueryTxtLen : inpRange.moveStart('character', -inpTxtLen); 
            end = inpRange.compareEndPoints('EndToEnd', collapsedRange) > -1 ? jqueryTxtLen : inpRange.moveEnd('character', -inpTxtLen); 
            } 
            return {start: Math.abs(start), end: Math.abs(end)}; 

            }, 
            // Usage: $('#txtArea').replaceCaretSelection({start: startIndex, end: endIndex, text: 'text to replace with', insPos: 'before|after|select'}) 
            // Options     start: start index of the text to be replaced 
            //               end: end index of the text to be replaced 
            //              text: text to replace the selection with 
            //            insPos: indicates whether to place the caret 'before' or 'after' the replacement text, 'select' will select the replacement text 

            replaceCaretSelection: function(options) 
            { 
            var pos = this.caretSelection(); 
            this.val( this.val().substring(0,pos.start) + options.text + this.val().substring(pos.end) ); 
            if(options.insPos == 'before') 
            { 
            this.caretSelection({start: pos.start, end: pos.start}); 
            } 
            else if( options.insPos == 'after' ) 
            { 
            this.caretSelection({start: pos.start + options.text.length, end: pos.start + options.text.length}); 
            } 
            else if( options.insPos == 'select' ) 
            { 
            this.caretSelection({start: pos.start, end: pos.start + options.text.length}); 
            } 
            } 
        });