Limit Textarea Characters Inline

Question

Is there a way to limit the number of characters in a textarea inline instead of defining a function??

Here is what I tried, no errors in chrome:

<textarea id="comments" name="comments" rows="10" cols="30" onkeydown="function(){if(document.getElementById('comments').value.length>=5) { return false; }}"></textarea>

Answer 1

I guess what you want is

<textarea maxlength="... any number value ...">

Answer 2

You want the maxlength attribute

<textarea maxlength="50">
Enter text here...
</textarea>