Element: cut event

{{APIRef}}

The cut event of the Clipboard API is fired when the user has initiated a “cut” action through the browser’s user interface.

If the user attempts a cut action on uneditable content, the cut event still fires but the event object contains no data.

The event’s default action is to copy the current selection (if any) to the system clipboard and remove it from the document.

A handler for this event can modify the clipboard contents by calling {{domxref("DataTransfer.setData", "setData(format, data)")}} on the event’s {{domxref("ClipboardEvent.clipboardData")}} property, and cancelling the default action using {{domxref("Event/preventDefault", "event.preventDefault()")}} .

Note though that cancelling the default action will also prevent the document from being updated. So an event handler which wants to emulate the default action for “cut” while modifying the clipboard must also manually remove the selection from the document.

The handler cannot read the clipboard data.

It’s possible to construct and dispatch a synthetic cut event, but this will not affect the system clipboard or the document’s contents.

This event bubbles, is cancelable and is composed.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like {{domxref("EventTarget.addEventListener", "addEventListener()")}} , or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("cut", (event) => {});

oncut = (event) => {};

Event type

A {{domxref("ClipboardEvent")}} . Inherits from {{domxref("Event")}} .

{{InheritanceDiagram("ClipboardEvent")}}

Examples

Live example

HTML

<div class="source" contenteditable="true">Cut text from this box.</div>
<div class="target" contenteditable="true">And paste it into this one.</div>

div.source,
div.target {
  border: 1px solid gray;
  margin: 0.5rem;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  height: 1rem;
  background-color: #e9eef1;
}

JavaScript

const source = document.querySelector("div.source");

source.addEventListener("cut", (event) => {
  const selection = document.getSelection();
  event.clipboardData.setData("text/plain", selection.toString().toUpperCase());
  selection.deleteFromDocument();
  event.preventDefault();
});

Result

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Live_example', '100%', '120px') }}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

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