Question

Validate a textbox when a certain letter is entered

Asked by: design_web

I'm trying to validate a textbox when certain letters are entered, For example, if b,c,d,e,g,y, or z are entered in the textbox a message will display - "Tell me why you entered this letter".  Then it should focus in a textarea to explain why they entered one of those letters.  After they explain why they entered that letter, the form should submit.  

If they enter a letter besides b,c,d,e,g,y, or z the form should submit without focusing on the textarea for a comment.  

There has to be a better way to write the IF statement.  Instead of writing all the IF statements below, how?  

This is what I have so far.  Please show me how to do this the right way.  Thanks


<SCRIPT  language="JavaScript">
function TheForm () {
var errors = "";
if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "b"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }
if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "c"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }
if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "d"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }
if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "e"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }
if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "g"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }

if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "y"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }

if (document.submitForm.letters.value == "z"){
    errors += "\n\tLetter  - Tell me why you entered this letter. \n";      
      }

<!--There has to be a better way to write the IF statement.  Instead of writing all these IF statements, how?-->


if (errors != ""){
                        
errors += alert(msg + errors + "\n\n");
return false;
}
return true;
}
</script>      

<form method="post" name="submitForm" action="send.asp" onSubmit="return TheForm();">
<input name="letters1" type="text" id="letters">
<textarea name="theComments" cols="80" rows="12"></textarea>
</form>





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Asked On
2007-09-11 at 16:28:35ID22822110
Tags

textbox

,

validation

,

how

Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: thirdPosted on 2007-09-11 at 16:54:53ID: 19873000

try this,

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<script  language="javascript">

function TheForm (obj) {
var errors = '';
var badLetters = 'b,c,d,e,g,y,z';
var badLettersArr = badLetters.split(',');
var counter = 0;

for(var i=0; i<badLettersArr.length; i++){
  if(obj.letters.value.indexOf(badLettersArr[i])!=-1){
    errors += '\n\tLetter ' + badLettersArr[i];
      counter++;
  }
}

if (errors != ""){
  var msg = 'Tell me why you entered ' + (counter>1?'these letters:':'this letter:') + errors;                        
  alert(msg);
  obj.theComments.focus();
  return false;
}
return true;
}
</script>      
</head>
<body>
<form method="post" name="submitForm" action="send.asp" onSubmit="return TheForm(this);">
<input name="letters" type="text" id="letters">
<textarea name="theComments" cols="80" rows="12"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
</form>
</body>
</html>

 

by: design_webPosted on 2007-09-11 at 18:29:57ID: 19873310

The validation works but when I type something in the textarea it doesn't submit.  I need the form to submit after I type something in the textarea box.

 

by: thirdPosted on 2007-09-11 at 18:36:53ID: 19873344

ok here,

function TheForm (obj) {
var errors = '';
var badLetters = 'b,c,d,e,g,y,z';
var badLettersArr = badLetters.split(',');
var counter = 0;

for(var i=0; i<badLettersArr.length; i++){
  if(obj.letters.value.indexOf(badLettersArr[i])!=-1){
    errors += '\n\tLetter ' + badLettersArr[i];
      counter++;
  }
}

if (obj.theComments.value.length!=0 && errors != ""){
  var msg = 'Tell me why you entered ' + (counter>1?'these letters:':'this letter:') + errors;                        
  alert(msg);
  obj.theComments.focus();
  return false;
}
return true;
}

 

by: design_webPosted on 2007-09-11 at 18:46:34ID: 19873392

Now it doesn't validate at all.  Looks like there's something wrong with  "obj.theComments.value.length!=0 && "

 

by: design_webPosted on 2007-09-11 at 18:51:24ID: 19873407

Here's the problem  length!=0  ------ Should be length ==""

 

by: thirdPosted on 2007-09-11 at 18:58:11ID: 19873435

sorry
obj.theComments.value.length!=0

should be

obj.theComments.value.length==0

 

by: design_webPosted on 2007-09-11 at 20:58:06ID: 19873800

The problem now if I add another form element.  For example if I add this

if (document.submitForm.name.value == ""){
    errors += "\n\tName - Please Enter your name \n";      
}

<input name="name" type="text" id="name">

If I fill out "letter" textbox and then "comments" textarea it will not validate "name" textbox.   I've tried everything I know but can't get it to work.  This is the only problem everything else works great.  




 

by: design_webPosted on 2007-09-11 at 20:59:26ID: 19873803

I forgot to add ----- it doesn't validate "Name" textbox but rather skips it and submits the form.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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