The HTMLElement.dir
property gets or sets the text writing directionality of the content of the current element.
The text writing directionality of an element is which direction that text goes (for support of different language systems). Arabic languages and Hebrew are typical languages using the RTL directionality.
An image can have its dir
property set to "rtl
" in which case the HTML attributes title
and alt
will be formatted and defined as "rtl
".
When a table has its dir
set to "rtl
", the column order is arranged from right to left.
When an element has its dir set to "auto
", the direction of the element is determined based on its first strong directionality character, or default to the directionality of its parent element.
Browsers might allow users to change the directionality of <input>
and <textarea>
s in order to assist with authoring content. Chrome and Safari provide a directionality option in the contextual menu of input fields while Internet Explorer and Edge use the key combinations Ctrl + Left Shift and Ctrl + Right Shift. Firefox uses Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X but does NOT update the dir
attribute value.
Syntax
var currentWritingDirection = elementNodeReference.dir; elementNodeReference.dir = newWritingDirection;
currentWritingDirection
is a string variable representing the text writing direction of the current element.newWritingDirection
is a string variable representing the text writing direction value.
Possible values for dir
are ltr
, for left-to-right, rtl
, for right-to-left, and auto
for specifying that the direction of the element must be determined based on the contents of the element.
Example
var parg = document.getElementById("para1"); parg.dir = "rtl"; // change the text direction on a paragraph identified as "para1"
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'dir' in that specification. |
Living Standard | No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification. |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'dir' in that specification. |
Obsolete | No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification. |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'dir' in that specification. |
Obsolete | Initial definition. |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dir | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE ? | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support 6 | WebView Android Full support 4.4 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- Compatibility unknown
- Compatibility unknown
See also
document.dir
- HTML
dir
global attribute - CSS
direction
property - CSS
:dir
pseudo-class