Of course the user can just select the text and copy it but giving them a button that they can click to copy it seems like a better idea(better UX). So in this article I will show you how you can copy text to clipboard using JavaScript.

1. Old method

the old way to copy text to clipboard is

• create a textarea(Or input)
• put the text you want to copy in that textarea
• add textarea to your page
• select the text in textarea
• execute copy command
• remove it from your page

function copyToClipboard(text){
    const textArea = document.createElement("textarea")
    textArea.value = text

    document.body.appendChild(textArea)

    textArea.focus()
    textArea.select()

    document.execCommand('copy')

    document.body.removeChild(textArea)
}

2. New method

For newer browsers we can simply use the navigator.clipboard to copy text

function copyToClipboard(text){
    navigator.clipboard.writeText(text)
}

3. Bonus

Now we can combine these two approach and create a function that would use the navigator.clipboard in modern browsers and fall back to old approach when needed

function copyToClipboard(text){
    if(navigator.clipboard){
        navigator.clipboard.writeText(text)
        return //codes below wont be executed
    }
    const textArea = document.createElement("textarea")
    textArea.value = text

    document.body.appendChild(textArea)

    textArea.focus()
    textArea.select()

    document.execCommand('copy')

    document.body.removeChild(textArea)
}

Make sure you check out my other articles and YouTube channel.

Lets create a screen recorder with JS

Shuvo ・ Oct 21 ・ 3 min read

#javascript #webdev #tutorial #beginners