writing to a coordinate in a textarea

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  • Cainnech
    New Member
    • Nov 2007
    • 132
    #1

    writing to a coordinate in a textarea

    Hello everyone,

    I've been browsing the net for some time now and I can't find the answer I'm looking for.


    I'm trying to insert text in a textarea but at a specified place. 30 characters from the left side of the textarea. But I can't find that script.

    What I did found were scripts to insert text at the cursor. The caret position was saved in a variable and then new text inserted at that caret-position. However, I would like to specify the location in the script. Anybody knows how to achieve this?

    Thanks,

    Cainnech
    Tags: None
    • mrhoo
      Contributor
      • Jun 2006
      • 428
      #2
      [CODE=javascript]
      var str=' String to insert';
      var n=30;
      var val= textareareferen ce.value;
      textareareferen ce.value= val.substring(0 ,n)+ str+ val.substring(n );
      [/CODE]

        Comment

        • Cainnech
          New Member
          • Nov 2007
          • 132
          #3
          Hi MrHoo,

          I've tried the code but it doesn't seem to work. On the net I found not really that much information about it. Could you explain me how the textareareferen ce works ?

          Thanks,

          Cainnech

            Comment

            • mrhoo
              Contributor
              • Jun 2006
              • 428
              #4
              Excuse me- when I said textareareferen ce, I meant
              'put a reference to the textarea here'-
              for example, if you had one textarea on the page you could use
              document.getEle mentsByTagName( 'textarea')[0],
              or if it had an id of 'mytext' it could be
              document.getEle mentById('mytex t').

                Comment

                • Cainnech
                  New Member
                  • Nov 2007
                  • 132
                  #5
                  Hi Mrhoo,

                  Silly me, I didn't think of it that way :-)

                  I tested it, and it writes the code into the textarea except it writes it in theleft corner and not at the 30th character. Am I doing something wrong?

                  Code:
                  <HTML>
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT>

function execute(){
var str='This is a test';
var n=30;
var val = document.form.output.value;
document.form.output.value += val.substring(0,n)+ str + val.substring(n);
}
</SCRIPT>

</HEAD>
<BODY>
<form name="form">
<textarea name="output" cols="50" rows="15"></textarea>
<br>
<input type="button" value="Test it" onclick="execute()">
<input type="reset" value="reset">
</form>
</BODY>
</HTML>

                    Comment

                    • mrhoo
                      Contributor
                      • Jun 2006
                      • 428
                      #6
                      If you do not have 30 characters you need to insert them-
                      and don't use += to set the value here.

                      <HTML>
                      <HEAD>
                      <SCRIPT>

                      [CODE=javascript]function execute(){
                      var str= 'This is a test';
                      var n= 30;
                      var who= document.getEle mentsByName('ou tput')[0];
                      var val= who.value;
                      while(val.lengt h<n)val= ' '+ val;
                      who.value= val.substring(0 ,n)+' '+ str + ' '+
                      val.substring(n );
                      }[/CODE]
                      </SCRIPT>

                      </HEAD>
                      <BODY>
                      <form>
                      <textarea name="output" cols="50" rows="15"></textarea>
                      <br>
                      <input type="button" value="Test it" onclick="execut e()">
                      <input type="reset" value="reset">
                      </form>
                      </BODY>
                      </HTML>
                      Last edited by mrhoo; Jan 8 '08, 02:27 PM. Reason: name change

                        Comment

                        • Cainnech
                          New Member
                          • Nov 2007
                          • 132
                          #7
                          Thanks mrhoo,

                          That works indeed. Except I just came to realise that this probably isn't the right approach for my purpose because I need to put it on every line.

                          You see I'm generating an output in the textarea and a part of that output I want to align to character 30 just so the contents are clear and structured.

                          I'll have to experiment further to make it work I think.

                          But thanks for the help you've given me.

                          Cainnech

                            Comment

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