Count characters in field dynamically

Question

I would like to count characters in a form textarea field dynamically, I know there is a similar question about this but I am wondering if it can count from a certain number towards 0, as example while writing a tweet on Twitter.

This code could be in javascript, PHP, it doesn't really matter to me.

possible duplicate of [jQuery - Count characters in textarea](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5371089/jquery-count-characters-in-textarea) — Gabriele Petrioli, Mar 21 '11 at 14:51

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 21 '11 at 14:39

6

This should help you out. Here is a tutorial regarding usage - a demo is found below:

Usage:

<input name="text" onKeyDown="CountLeft(this.form.text, this.form.left,50);"
                   onKeyUp="CountLeft(this.form.text,this.form.left,50);">

Javascript:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

 function CountLeft(field, count, max) 
 {
     if (field.value.length > max)
         field.value = field.value.substring(0, max);
     else
         count.value = max - field.value.length;
 }

</SCRIPT>

Demo - Credit to www.reconn.us

Hope this helps.

answered Mar 21 '11 at 14:39

Rion Williams

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For some reason my onKeyPress="return entsub(event)" in that field does not work when I enter this code? – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 14:58
Are you referring to the onKeyUp event? It may also help to look at the source of the demo. – Rion Williams Mar 21 '11 at 15:03
Also - make sure that you created a field to hold the counter value. In the demo I believe that it is called "left". – Rion Williams Mar 21 '11 at 15:04
no i am referring to the onkeypress event, as i want to sumbit the form when one presses the enter key. – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 15:05
I got the counter to display, it was a problem with the css, but the onkeypress event still does not work. – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 15:10
Oh and btw, how could I display the counter as simple text and not a field? – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 15:16
Using this sample styling - on the input that contains the count - add 'style = border: 0;' in the input tag. – Rion Williams Mar 21 '11 at 15:20
Aha, yes of course. But could you help me with my onkeypress issue? – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 15:21
Working on it right now - not really sure why it isn't firing. – Rion Williams Mar 21 '11 at 15:21
I think it has to do with that both onkeyup and onkeydown are specified - causing onkeypress to be rendered useless? I am not sure, I am not very good at javascript, but that's just my point of view. Isn't there a way to put this functionality inside the onkeyup/onkeydown event? – Deniz Zoeteman Mar 21 '11 at 15:24

Thor Jacobsen · Answer 2 · 2011-03-21T14:43:14.087

2

With Javascript, use the KeyUp event handler, and check for the legnth-property on your text field on every event.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/nslr/C2CNS/

edited Mar 21 '11 at 14:43

answered Mar 21 '11 at 14:37

Thor Jacobsen

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Count characters in field dynamically

2 Answers2

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