Web/API/FileReader/readAsText

The readAsText() method is used to read the contents of the specified Blob or File. When the read operation is complete, the readyState is changed to DONE, the loadend event is triggered, and the result property contains the contents of the file as a text string.

Newer API avaliable The Blob.text() method is a newer promise-based API to read a file as text.

Syntax

instanceOfFileReader.readAsText(blob[, encoding]);

Parameters

blob

The Blob or File from which to read.

encoding Optional

A string specifying the encoding to use for the returned data. By default, UTF-8 is assumed if this parameter is not specified.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
File APIThe definition of 'readAsText()' in that specification.	Working Draft	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
readAsText	Chrome Full support 7	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.6	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 11	Safari Full support 6	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 32	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 6.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See also

• FileReader

FileReader.readAsText() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.