Count the number of characters of a textarea
Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Category
Level 1 — Basic
Created
18 Mar, 2020
Assume that we have a
`textarea`
and a normal `div`
elements for showing how many characters user has been entering:<textarea id="message"></textarea>
<div id="counter"></div>
#Use the `maxlength`
attribute
The
`maxlength`
attribute sets the maximum number of characters that user can put in the textarea.<textarea maxlength="200" id="message"></textarea>
#Count the number of characters
Handle the
`input`
event which is triggered if the value of element is changed:const messageEle = document.getElementById('message');
const counterEle = document.getElementById('counter');
messageEle.addEventListener('input', function (e) {
const target = e.target;
// Get the `maxlength` attribute
const maxLength = target.getAttribute('maxlength');
// Count the current number of characters
const currentLength = target.value.length;
counterEle.innerHTML = `${currentLength}/${maxLength}`;
});
Good to knowThe common mistake is to capture the`keyup`
event. It doesn't work in some cases such as:
- User drags a text into the textarea
- User right-clicks in the textarea and chooses Paste from the context menu
#Demo
#See also
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Phước Nguyễn