According to MDN
selection.anchorNode – returns the Node in which the selection begins.
selection.focusNode – returns the Node in which the selection ends.
because there were debates on naming:
- baseNode is alias for anchorNode
- extentNode for focusNode
Note: references to both baseNode and extentNode have been removed from the MDN page.
The following is beyond the scope of this question, but I’ll post this anyway, as I found selection to be a tricky part in some scenarios.
Take a look at this example:
<p>ab12<sup>3</sup>4567890 !</p>
Let’s say we’ve made selection “1234567890”.
I’ve made a picture to explain where anchor and focus nodes and offsets are.
