Baseline Widely available
Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.
The FileReader
interface lets web applications asynchronously read the contents of files (or raw data buffers) stored on the user's computer, using File
or Blob
objects to specify the file or data to read.
File objects may be obtained from a FileList
object returned as a result of a user selecting files using the <input type="file">
element, or from a drag and drop operation's DataTransfer
object. FileReader
can only access the contents of files that the user has explicitly selected; it cannot be used to read a file by pathname from the user's file system. To read files on the client's file system by pathname, use the File System Access API. To read server-side files, use fetch()
, with CORS permission if reading cross-origin.
FileReader()
Returns a new FileReader
object.
See Using files from web applications for details and examples.
Instance propertiesFileReader.error
Read only
A DOMException
representing the error that occurred while reading the file.
FileReader.readyState
Read only
A number indicating the state of the FileReader
. This is one of the following:
EMPTY
0
No data has been loaded yet. LOADING
1
Data is currently being loaded. DONE
2
The entire read request has been completed.
FileReader.result
Read only
The file's contents. This property is only valid after the read operation is complete, and the format of the data depends on which of the methods was used to initiate the read operation.
FileReader.abort()
Aborts the read operation. Upon return, the readyState
will be DONE
.
FileReader.readAsArrayBuffer()
Starts reading the contents of the specified Blob
, once finished, the result
attribute contains an ArrayBuffer
representing the file's data.
FileReader.readAsBinaryString()
Deprecated
Starts reading the contents of the specified Blob
, once finished, the result
attribute contains the raw binary data from the file as a string.
FileReader.readAsDataURL()
Starts reading the contents of the specified Blob
, once finished, the result
attribute contains a data:
URL representing the file's data.
FileReader.readAsText()
Starts reading the contents of the specified Blob
, once finished, the result
attribute contains the contents of the file as a text string. An optional encoding name can be specified.
Listen to these events using addEventListener()
or by assigning an event listener to the oneventname
property of this interface. Remove the event listeners with removeEventListener()
, once FileReader
is no longer used, to avoid memory leaks.
abort
Fired when a read has been aborted, for example because the program called FileReader.abort()
.
error
Fired when the read failed due to an error.
load
Fired when a read has completed successfully.
loadend
Fired when a read has completed, successfully or not.
loadstart
Fired when a read has started.
progress
Fired periodically as data is read.
This example reads and displays the contents of a text file directly in the browser.
HTML<h1>File Reader</h1>
<input type="file" id="file-input" />
<div id="message"></div>
<pre id="file-content"></pre>
JavaScript
const fileInput = document.getElementById("file-input");
const fileContentDisplay = document.getElementById("file-content");
const messageDisplay = document.getElementById("message");
fileInput.addEventListener("change", handleFileSelection);
function handleFileSelection(event) {
const file = event.target.files[0];
fileContentDisplay.textContent = ""; // Clear previous file content
messageDisplay.textContent = ""; // Clear previous messages
// Validate file existence and type
if (!file) {
showMessage("No file selected. Please choose a file.", "error");
return;
}
if (!file.type.startsWith("text")) {
showMessage("Unsupported file type. Please select a text file.", "error");
return;
}
// Read the file
const reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = () => {
fileContentDisplay.textContent = reader.result;
};
reader.onerror = () => {
showMessage("Error reading the file. Please try again.", "error");
};
reader.readAsText(file);
}
// Displays a message to the user
function showMessage(message, type) {
messageDisplay.textContent = message;
messageDisplay.style.color = type === "error" ? "red" : "green";
}
Result Specifications Browser compatibility See also
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HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.3