[jquery] Count characters in textarea

I want to count characters in a textarea, so I just made:

<textarea id="field" onkeyup="countChar(this)"></textarea>

function countChar(val){
     var len = val.value.length;
     if (len >= 500) {
              val.value = val.value.substring(0, 500);
     } else {
              $('#charNum').text(500 - len);
     }
};

What's wrong with my piece of code? It does not work! Well, that was a newbie handwriting, need a help.

substring() needs to become substr().

Example: jsfiddle.net/xqyWV

Improved version based on Caterham's function:

$('#field').keyup(function () {
  var max = 500;
  var len = $(this).val().length;
  if (len >= max) {
    $('#charNum').text(' you have reached the limit');
  } else {
    var char = max - len;
    $('#charNum').text(char + ' characters left');
  }
});

Seems like the most reusable and elegant solution combines the abive to take MaxLength from the Input attribute and then reference the Span element with a predictable id....

Then to use, all you need to do is add '.countit' to the Input class and 'counter_' + [input-ID] to your span

HTML

<textarea class="countit" name="name" maxlength='6' id="post"></textarea>
<span>characters remaining: <span id="counter_name"></span></span>
<br>
<textarea class="countit" name="post" maxlength='20' id="post"></textarea>
<span>characters remaining: <span id="counter_post"></span></span>
<br>
<textarea class="countit" name="desc" maxlength='10' id="desc"></textarea>
<span>characters remaining: <span id="counter_desc"></span></span>

Jquery

$(".countit").keyup(function () {
  var maxlength = $(this).attr("maxlength");
  var currentLength = $(this).val().length;

  if( currentLength >= maxlength ){
    $("#counter_" + $(this).attr("id")).html(currentLength + ' / ' + maxlength);
    }else{
    $("#counter_" + $(this).attr("id")).html(maxlength - currentLength + " chars left");
  }
});

Your code was a bit mixed up. Here is a clean version:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $("#add").click(function() {
            $.post("SetAndGet.php", {
                know: $("#know").val()
            }, function(data) {
                $("#know_list").html(data);
            });
        });

        function countChar(val) {
            var len = val.value.length;
            if (len >= 500) {
                val.value = val.value.substring(0, 500);
            } else {
                $('#charNum').text(500 - len);
            }
        }
    });
</script>

Here my example. Supper simple

$(document).ready(function() {_x000D_
      _x000D_
        var textarea    = $("#my_textarea");_x000D_
  _x000D_
        textarea.keydown(function(event) {_x000D_
          _x000D_
            var numbOfchars = textarea.val();_x000D_
            var len = numbOfchars.length;_x000D_
            $(".chars-counter").text(len);_x000D_
_x000D_
        });_x000D_
  _x000D_
  _x000D_
 }); 

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>_x000D_
<textarea id="my_textarea" class="uk-textarea" rows="5" name="text"></textarea>_x000D_
<h1 class="chars-counter">0</h1>

We weren't happy with any of the purposed solutions.

So we've created a complete char counter solution for JQuery, built on top of jquery-jeditable. It's a textarea plugin extension that can count to both ways, displays a custom message, limits char count and also supports jquery-datatables.

You can test it right away on JSFiddle.

GitHub link: https://github.com/HippotecLTD/realworld_jquery_jeditable_charcount

Quick start

Add these lines to your HTML:

<script async src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/HippotecLTD/[email protected]/dist/jquery.jeditable.charcounter.realworld.min.js"></script>
<script async src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/HippotecLTD/[email protected]/dist/jquery.charcounter.realworld.min.js"></script>

And then:

$("#myTextArea4").charCounter();

this worked fine for me.

$('#customText').on('keyup', function(event) {
   var len = $(this).val().length;
   if (len >= 40) {
      $(this).val($(this).val().substring(0, len-1));
   }
});

?? The accepted solution is flawed.

Here are two scenarios where the keyup event will not get fired:

1. The user drags text into the textarea.
2. The user copy-paste text in the textarea with a right click (contextual menu).

Use the HTML5 input event instead for a more robust solution:

<textarea maxlength='140'></textarea>

JavaScript (demo):

const textarea = document.querySelector("textarea");

textarea.addEventListener("input", event => {
    const target = event.currentTarget;
    const maxLength = target.getAttribute("maxlength");
    const currentLength = target.value.length;

    if (currentLength >= maxLength) {
        return console.log("You have reached the maximum number of characters.");
    }

    console.log(`${maxLength - currentLength} chars left`);
});

And if you absolutely want to use jQuery:

$('textarea').on("input", function(){
    var maxlength = $(this).attr("maxlength");
    var currentLength = $(this).val().length;

    if( currentLength >= maxlength ){
        console.log("You have reached the maximum number of characters.");
    }else{
        console.log(maxlength - currentLength + " chars left");
    }
});

I did a combination of the above. It allows for the halting of the text entry, and allows for the backspacing, plus keeps the count, even when backspacing:

JavaScript code:

$(document).ready(function () {

  $('#giftmsg').keypress(function (event) {
    var max = 250;
    var len = $(this).val().length;

    if (event.which < 0x20) {
      // e.which < 0x20, then it's not a printable character
      // e.which === 0 - Not a character
      return; // Do nothing
    }

    if (len >= max) {
      event.preventDefault();
    }

  });

  $('#giftmsg').keyup(function (event) {
    var max = 250;
    var len = $(this).val().length;
    var char = max - len;

    $('#textleft').text(char + ' characters left');

  });

});

HTML:

<div class="col3">
    <h2>3. Optional gift message</h2>
    Enter gift message. Limit 250 characters.<br /><br />
    <textarea cols="36" rows="5" id="giftmsg" ></textarea>
    <a style="padding:7px 0 0 0" href="#">Save Message</a>
    <div id="textleft">250 characters left</div>
</div>

Credit to those posters before me!! Hope this helps someone!

U can use :

    $(document).ready(function () {
  $('#ID').keyup(function () {
   var val = $(this).val();
   len = val.length;
   if (len >= 140) {
    $(this).text(val.substring(0, 140));
   } else {
    console.log(140 - len);
    $('#charNum').empty().append(140 - len);
   }
  });
 });

$(document).ready(function() {
    var count = $("h1").text().length;
    alert(count);
});

Also, you can put your own element id or class instead of "h1" and length event count your characters of text area string ?

A more generic version so you can use the function for more than one field.

<script src="../site/jquery/jquery.min.js" ></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

function countChar(inobj, maxl, outobj) {
    var len = inobj.value.length;
    var msg = ' chr left';
    if (len >= maxl) {
        inobj.value = inobj.value.substring(0, maxl);
        $(outobj).text(0 + msg);
    } else {
        $(outobj).text(maxl - len + msg);
    }
}


$(document).ready(function(){

    //set up summary field character count
    countChar($('#summary').get(0),500, '#summarychrs'); //show inital value on page load
    $('#summary').keyup(function() {
        countChar(this, 500, '#summarychrs'); //set up on keyup event function
    });

});
</script>

<textarea name="summary" id="summary" cols="60" rows="3" ><?php echo $summary ?></textarea> 
<span id="summarychrs">0</span>

$('#field').keyup(function () {
    var max = 160;
    var len = $(this).val().length;
//  var char = max - len;
    var messages = Math.ceil(len / 160);
    if (len >= max) {
        $('#charNum').text('(' + messages + ') ' + len + '/' + max);
    } else {
        $('#charNum').text(len + '/' + max);
    }
    });

I was wondering how to do this same thing and taking ideas from everyone here this is what I came up with:

JsFiddle

<textarea name="message" rows="4" cols="24" maxlength="1000" id="message" placeholder="Message:" style=""></textarea><br/>
<span id="charNum"></span>

$('#message').keyup(function () {
  max = this.getAttribute("maxlength");
  var len = $(this).val().length;
   if (len >= max) {
    $('#charNum').text(' you have reached the limit');
   } else {
    var char = max - len;
    $('#charNum').text(char + ' characters left');
   }
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

    <script>

            function countChar(val) 
            {

             var limit = 1024;

            if ( val.length > limit )
              { 
              $("#comment").val(val.substring(0, limit-1));
              val.length = limit;
              }

              $("#count").html((limit)-(val.length));     
              }

        </script>

        <textarea id="comment" onKeyUp="countChar(this.value)" required></textarea>

        <div id="count"></div>

Use the following to skip using else and also skip getting negative count.

HTML sample, used wherever I need a counter, notice the relevance of IDs of textarea and second span : id="post" <-> id="rem_post" and the title of the span that holds the desired characters amount of each particular textarea

<textarea class="countit" name="post" id="post"></textarea>
<p>
  <span>characters remaining: <span id="rem_post" title="1000"></span></span>
</p>

JavaScript function, usually placed before </body> in my template file, requires jQuery

$(".countit").keyup(function () {
  var cmax = $("#rem_" + $(this).attr("id")).attr("title");

  if ($(this).val().length >= cmax) {
    $(this).val($(this).val().substr(0, cmax));
  }

  $("#rem_" + $(this).attr("id")).text(cmax - $(this).val().length);

});

I created my own jQuery plugin for this task, you can try it out here:

http://jsfiddle.net/Sk8erPeter/8NF4r/

You can create character counters on-the-fly (and also remaining character counters), you can define whether you want to chop text, you can define the suffix texts and you can also define a short format and its separator.

Here's an example usage:

$(document).ready(function () {

    $('#first_textfield').characterCounter();

    $('#second_textfield').characterCounter({
        maximumCharacters: 20,
        chopText: true
    });

    $('#third_textfield').characterCounter({
        maximumCharacters: 20,
        shortFormat: true,
        shortFormatSeparator: " / ",
        positionBefore: true,
        chopText: true
    });

    $('#fourth_textfield').characterCounter({
        maximumCharacters: 20,
        characterCounterNeeded: true,
        charactersRemainingNeeded: true,
        chopText: false
    });

    $('#first_textarea').characterCounter({
        maximumCharacters: 50,
        characterCounterNeeded: true,
        charactersRemainingNeeded: false,
        chopText: true
    });

    $('#second_textarea').characterCounter({
        maximumCharacters: 25
    });

});

Here's the code of the plugin:

/**
 * Character counter and limiter plugin for textfield and textarea form elements
 * @author Sk8erPeter
 */ 
(function ($) {
  $.fn.characterCounter = function (params) {
    // merge default and user parameters
    params = $.extend({
      // define maximum characters
      maximumCharacters: 1000,
      // create typed character counter DOM element on the fly
      characterCounterNeeded: true,
      // create remaining character counter DOM element on the fly
      charactersRemainingNeeded: true,
      // chop text to the maximum characters
      chopText: false,
      // place character counter before input or textarea element
      positionBefore: false,
      // class for limit excess
      limitExceededClass: "character-counter-limit-exceeded",
      // suffix text for typed characters
      charactersTypedSuffix: " characters typed",
      // suffix text for remaining characters
      charactersRemainingSuffixText: " characters left",
      // whether to use the short format (e.g. 123/1000)
      shortFormat: false,
      // separator for the short format
      shortFormatSeparator: "/"
    }, params);

    // traverse all nodes
    this.each(function () {
      var $this = $(this),
        $pluginElementsWrapper,
        $characterCounterSpan,
        $charactersRemainingSpan;

      // return if the given element is not a textfield or textarea
      if (!$this.is("input[type=text]") && !$this.is("textarea")) {
        return this;
      }

      // create main parent div
      if (params.characterCounterNeeded || params.charactersRemainingNeeded) {
        // create the character counter element wrapper
        $pluginElementsWrapper = $('<div>', {
          'class': 'character-counter-main-wrapper'
        });

        if (params.positionBefore) {
          $pluginElementsWrapper.insertBefore($this);
        } else {
          $pluginElementsWrapper.insertAfter($this);
        }
      }

      if (params.characterCounterNeeded) {
        $characterCounterSpan = $('<span>', {
          'class': 'counter character-counter',
          'text': 0
        });

        if (params.shortFormat) {
          $characterCounterSpan.appendTo($pluginElementsWrapper);

          var $shortFormatSeparatorSpan = $('<span>', {
            'html': params.shortFormatSeparator
          }).appendTo($pluginElementsWrapper);

        } else {
          // create the character counter element wrapper
          var $characterCounterWrapper = $('<div>', {
            'class': 'character-counter-wrapper',
            'html': params.charactersTypedSuffix
          });

          $characterCounterWrapper.prepend($characterCounterSpan);
          $characterCounterWrapper.appendTo($pluginElementsWrapper);
        }
      }

      if (params.charactersRemainingNeeded) {

        $charactersRemainingSpan = $('<span>', {
          'class': 'counter characters-remaining',
          'text': params.maximumCharacters
        });

        if (params.shortFormat) {
          $charactersRemainingSpan.appendTo($pluginElementsWrapper);
        } else {
          // create the character counter element wrapper
          var $charactersRemainingWrapper = $('<div>', {
            'class': 'characters-remaining-wrapper',
            'html': params.charactersRemainingSuffixText
          });
          $charactersRemainingWrapper.prepend($charactersRemainingSpan);
          $charactersRemainingWrapper.appendTo($pluginElementsWrapper);
        }
      }

      $this.keyup(function () {

        var typedText = $this.val();
        var textLength = typedText.length;
        var charactersRemaining = params.maximumCharacters - textLength;

        // chop the text to the desired length
        if (charactersRemaining < 0 && params.chopText) {
          $this.val(typedText.substr(0, params.maximumCharacters));
          charactersRemaining = 0;
          textLength = params.maximumCharacters;
        }

        if (params.characterCounterNeeded) {
          $characterCounterSpan.text(textLength);
        }

        if (params.charactersRemainingNeeded) {
          $charactersRemainingSpan.text(charactersRemaining);

          if (charactersRemaining <= 0) {
            if (!$charactersRemainingSpan.hasClass(params.limitExceededClass)) {
              $charactersRemainingSpan.addClass(params.limitExceededClass);
            }
          } else {
            $charactersRemainingSpan.removeClass(params.limitExceededClass);
          }
        }
      });

    });

    // allow jQuery chaining
    return this;

  };
})(jQuery);

$.fn.extend( {
       limiter: function(limit, elem) {
            $(this).on("keyup focus", function() {
               setCount(this, elem);
           });
            function setCount(src, elem) {
               var chars = src.value.length;
                if (chars > limit) {
                    src.value = src.value.substr(0, limit);
                    chars = limit;
                }
                elem.html( limit - chars );
            }
            setCount($(this)[0], elem);
        }
    });

    var elem = $("#cntr");  
    $("#status_txt").limiter(160, elem);

HTML

<form method="post">
<textarea name="postes" id="textAreaPost" placeholder="Write what's you new" maxlength="500"></textarea>

<div id="char_namb" style="padding: 4px; float: right; font-size: 20px; font-family: Cocon; text-align: center;">500 : 0</div>
</form>

jQuery

$(function(){
    $('#textAreaPost').keyup(function(){
      var charsno = $(this).val().length;
      $('#char_namb').html("500 : " + charsno);
    });
});

Well, this is not that different from what have been said, but this works very well in all browsers.

The idea is to delete any text which overflows the defined length.

function countTextAreaChar(txtarea, l){
    var len = $(txtarea).val().length;
    if (len > l) $(txtarea).val($(txtarea).val().slice(0, l));
    else $('#charNum').text(l - len);
    }

The HTMl code would be:

<div id="charNum"></div>
<textarea onkeyup="countTextAreaChar(this, 10)" class="textareaclass" id="smallword" rows="40" cols="30" name="smallword"></textarea>

Keeping in mind what Etienne Martin says, you can use oninput, as it detects any change within texarea. Detect if you copy and paste text.

$('#textarea').on('input', function() {
        var max = 400;
        var len = $(this).val().length;
        var char = max - len;
        if (len >= max) {
            $('#charNum').text(' You have reached the character limit.');
            $('#charNum').addClass("text-danger"); // optional, adding a class using bootstrap
        } else if (char <= 10) {
            $('#charNum').text(char + ' You are reaching the character limit.');
            $('#charNum').addClass("text-warning"); // optional, adding a class using bootstrap
        } else {
            var char = max - len;
            $('#charNum').text(char + ' characters remaining.');
            $('#charNum').addClass("text-success"); // optional, adding a class using bootstrap
        }
        });

Try this one.

<textarea maxlength="410" name="about_me" onkeydown="CountLeft(this.form.about_me, this.form.left);" onkeyup="CountLeft(this.form.about_me,this.form.left); "></textarea>

<input maxlength="3" name="left" readonly="" size="3" type="text" value="410" /> characters left

<script>
function CountLeft(field, count) 
{
    var max = "410";
    if (field.value.length > max)
    {
        field.value = field.value.substring(0, max);
    }
    else
    {
        count.value = max - field.value.length;
    }
}
</script>