The validation works, and the alert pops up when the email address is not valid, but then it goes and submits it after you click 'Ok' anyway. How do I stop it from processing the action?

Code sample:

<input type="submit" onclick="validate()" />

function validate() {
var email = $('input[name=email]').val();
if (!/(.+)@(.+){2,}\.(.+){2,}/.test(email)) {
  alert('Please enter a valid email address');
  return false;
}
}

Thanks!

The validation works, and the alert pops up when the email address is not valid, but then it goes and submits it after you click 'Ok' anyway. How do I stop it from processing the action?

Code sample:

<input type="submit" onclick="validate()" />

function validate() {
var email = $('input[name=email]').val();
if (!/(.+)@(.+){2,}\.(.+){2,}/.test(email)) {
  alert('Please enter a valid email address');
  return false;
}
}

Thanks!

• javascript
• forms
• validation

• (.+){2,} --- what does this part mean? – zerkms Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 2:18
• I got the regex from somewhere else, sorry, I don't know the specifics of it, only that it validates the email! My guess is that it's something like "must be something here, must be at least 2 characters" – zenkaty Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 2:19
• 1 <input type="submit" onclick="return validate()" /> – gp. Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 2:20
• So should I use .+@.{2,}\..{2,} instead of (.+)@(.+){2,}\.(.+){2,}? – zenkaty Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 2:42
• @zenkaty: yeb, because the latter makes no sense. (.+){2,} --- this could only be written by a person who doesn't understand what he does – zerkms Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 2:43

2 Answers 2

onclick="return validate();"

then return true if validation is successful and false if not...

you can also attach the validation to the form itself:

<form onsubmit="return validate();">

or with jquery:

$('form').submit(function() {
   // validate
});

You need to bind onsubmit event of the form tag i.e.

<form onsubmit="return validate();" >...</form>