jquery input select all on focus

Question

Hey all. I'm using this code to try and select all of the text in the field when a user focuses on the field. What happens is, it selects all for a second, then its unselected and the typing cursor is left where I clicked...

$("input[type=text]").focus(function() {
   $(this).select();
});

I want it all to remain selected. Any ideas?

Many Thanks

Answer 1

I think that what happens is this:

focus()
   UI tasks related to pre-focus
   callbacks
       select()
   UI tasks related to focus (which unselect again)

A workaround may be calling the select() asynchronously, so that it runs completely after focus():

$("input[type=text]").focus(function() {
    window.setTimeout(function(){
        $(this).select();
    },100);
});

Answer 2

Try using click instead of focus. It seems to work for both mouse and key events (at least on Chrome/Mac):

$("input[type=text]").click(function() {
   $(this).select();
});​

Here is a demo