How can I “undo” the programmatic insertion of text into a textarea?

Question

I have a textarea and a button. Clicking the button causes text to be inserted into the textarea.

Is there a way to allow a user to press Ctrl/Cmd+z to undo the inse

Answer 1

Save the original value of the textarea in its data:

var $textarea = $('textarea');

$('button').on('click', function () {
    var val = $textarea.val();

    $textarea.data('old-val', val).val(val + ' some text');
});

If you want an array of data (as @ahren suggested), use this:

var $textarea = $('textarea');

$('button').on('click', function () {
    var val = $textarea.val();

    if ( ! $textarea.data('old-val')) {
        $textarea.data('old-val', []);
    }

    $textarea.data('old-val').push(val);

    $textarea.val(val + ' some text');
});