i have created one form for user to submit a abstract. but while submitting i need to check weather they have added more than 250 words or not. i need to allow only 250 words . how to do this ?

i have tried some JavaScript but it works for only 250 character.

here is my code

function maxlength(element, maxvalue)
   {
  var q = eval("document.upload."+element+".value.length");
   var r = q - maxvalue;
   var msg = "Sorry, you have input "+q+" characters into the "+
  "text area box you just pleted. It can return no more than "+
  maxvalue+" words to be processed. Please abbreviate "+
 "your text by at least "+r+" words";
    if (q > maxvalue) alert(msg);
      }

and my textarea is :

  <tr>
   <td><label>Abstract Details</label> </td>
 <td><label>Please enter data, at most 250 words:</label>
  <br/><textarea rows="6" cols="80"name="box_name"   onChange="maxlength('box_name', 250)" style="width: 257px; height: 131px;">    </textarea></td>
    </tr>
  <tr>

how to limit for 250 words .

thanks in advance

i have created one form for user to submit a abstract. but while submitting i need to check weather they have added more than 250 words or not. i need to allow only 250 words . how to do this ?

i have tried some JavaScript but it works for only 250 character.

here is my code

function maxlength(element, maxvalue)
   {
  var q = eval("document.upload."+element+".value.length");
   var r = q - maxvalue;
   var msg = "Sorry, you have input "+q+" characters into the "+
  "text area box you just pleted. It can return no more than "+
  maxvalue+" words to be processed. Please abbreviate "+
 "your text by at least "+r+" words";
    if (q > maxvalue) alert(msg);
      }

and my textarea is :

  <tr>
   <td><label>Abstract Details</label> </td>
 <td><label>Please enter data, at most 250 words:</label>
  <br/><textarea rows="6" cols="80"name="box_name"   onChange="maxlength('box_name', 250)" style="width: 257px; height: 131px;">    </textarea></td>
    </tr>
  <tr>

how to limit for 250 words .

thanks in advance

• javascript
• php
• jquery
• textarea

• So you would like to allow 250 words not `characters ? – Mox Shah Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 6:57
• Take a look to given link, Answer is available : stackoverflow./questions/16395785/… – Bhargav Bhanderi Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 6:58
• 1 Just split with textarea's value with space and verify the length with maxlength – Mox Shah Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 7:00
• 3 stackoverflow./questions/17909646/… here you go first link from google when you search for it. – valar morghulis Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 7:03

4 Answers 4

To prevent submitting form when there is more than 250 characters in the textarea, add id="box_id" to your textarea and add this event to form element:

onsubmit="return maxlength(getElementById('box_id'), 250);

Now in your function split this value by multiple spaces:

function maxlength(element, maxvalue){
    var q = element.value.split(/[\s]+/).length;
    if(q > maxvalue){
        var r = q - maxvalue;
        alert("Sorry, you have input "+q+" words into the "+
        "text area box you just pleted. It can return no more than "+
        maxvalue+" words to be processed. Please abbreviate "+
        "your text by at least "+r+" words");
        return false;
    }
}

To take advantage from new HTML attributes, you can also add "pattern" attribute to textarea with regex limiting input to 250 words:

<textarea rows="6" cols="80"name="box_name"   onChange="maxlength(this, 250)" style="width: 257px; height: 131px;" 
    pattern="^(?:\b\w+\b[\s\r\n]*){1,250}$">
</textarea>

This regex pattern was taken from following SO thread, which touches similar problem with 250 words: Limit the number of words in a response with a regular expression

use this:

function maxlength(element, maxvalue)
{
    var value = $(elment).val();
    var words = value.split(' ');

    var msg = 'Sorry, you have input ' + words.length + ' words into the ' +
        'text area you just pleted. It can return no more than ' +
        maxvalue + ' words to be processed. Please abbreviate ' +
        'your text by at least ' + (words.length - maxvalue) + ' words';

    if (words.length > maxvalue) {
        alert(msg);
    }
}

If you want 250 characters, You can set the maxlength attribute to 250

if you want 250 words:

function maxlength(obj,wordLen){
   var len = obj.value.split(/[\s]+/);
   if(len.length > wordLen){
       alert("You cannot put more than "+wordLen+" words in this text area.");
   }
 }

Function Call:

onChange="maxlength(this, 250)"

Working Demo

This statement eval("document.upload." + element + ".value.length") will return no of characters not words, if you want to limit 250 words then just split value of textarea with space and verify it with max words allowed and then return appropriate message:

You may try this code.

function maxlength(element, maxvalue) {
    var q = eval("document.upload." + element + ".value");
    var textLength = q.split(/\S+/).length - 1
    var r = textLength - maxvalue;
    var msg = "Sorry, you have input " + textLength + " characters into the " +
        "text area box you just pleted. It can return no more than " + maxvalue + " words to be processed. Please abbreviate " +
        "your text by at least " + r + " words";
    if (textLength > maxvalue) alert(msg);
}