How can I get the length of text entered in a textbox using jQuery?

Question

How can I get the length of text entered in a textbox using jQuery?

Answer 1

You need to only grab the element with an appropriate jQuery selector and then the .val() method to get the string contained in the input textbox and then call the .length on that string.

$('input:text').val().length

However, be warned that if the selector matches multiple inputs, .val() will only return the value of the first textbox. You can also change the selector to get a more specific element but keep the :text to ensure it's an input textbox.

On another note, to get the length of a string contained in another, non-input element, you can use the .text() function to get the string and then use .length on that string to find its length.