<textarea id="metaSourceText" name='key' style="width:100%" class="text ui-widget-content ui-corner-all" rows="1"></textarea>

I tried

$metaSourceValue = $('metaSourceText').val();
alert($metaSourceValue);

But it shows "undefined"

<textarea id="metaSourceText" name='key' style="width:100%" class="text ui-widget-content ui-corner-all" rows="1"></textarea>

I tried

$metaSourceValue = $('metaSourceText').val();
alert($metaSourceValue);

But it shows "undefined"

• javascript
• jquery
• html

5 Answers 5

Your code just needs to be tweaked, to something like this:

var metaSourceValue = $('#metaSourceText').val();
alert(metaSourceValue);

you were missing the hash before metaSourceText, signaling an ID to jQuery. And you typically don't want to start variables with $

You missed the # character in $('#metaSourceText')

.text() method will also give you value of textarea. In ready() state you can either get object of textarea using class selector or id selector.

 $(document).ready(function () {
 $("#submitbtn").click(function () {
 var textAreaValue = $("#txtMessage").text();
 alert(textAreaValue);
 });
});

Check sample here: http://www.codegateway./2012/03/get-textarea-value-in-jquery.html

Please define the selector with '#' prefix as it is an ID you are referring. In your case, it refers a DOM element of type metaSourceText which really does not exists..

To get a value of this text area: you can use .text() or val();

$(function(){

var textareaContent = $('#metaSourceText').text();
alert(textareaContent);

​}​);​

fiddle link:http://jsfiddle/Ds4HC/1/

Javascript variables don't start with $. EDIT: They can, but usually do not. See Why would a JavaScript variable start with a dollar sign?)

You want to try:

var metaSourceValue = $('#metaSourceText').val();
alert(metaSourceValue);

The $(...) used by jQuery is a shortcut to the jQuery function.

Also, as others mentioned, you need $('#metaSourceText') if you're trying to reference the textarea by id - you were missing the #.