Refusing Only Spaces in an input in a form in html

Question

Form field is message. I don't want users to be able to send only spaces as a message. So,

" " and " " and " " and " " and so on will go to something like

if (x==null || x=="" || x==" " || x=="  ") {
    alert("At least 8 characters are required!");
    return false;
}

but I need to arrange the 'if' area in a way that it will not accept only 'space' character, no matter how many 'space' characters the user puts (And at least total of , let's say, eight characters need to be put).

Thank you.

Use regular expressions. In many languages \s matches any "white space" characters. — PM 77-1
– PM 77-1, Commented Jul 9, 2014 at 0:36

AstroCB · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-09 01:49:49Z

3

Just so you know, there are many ways to do this, but I'll give you a fairly simple one.

Use .trim() to remove all whitespace:

if(x.trim() === "" || x === null){
  alert("At least 8 characters are required!");
  return false;
}

Demo

Alternatively, you could remove the space characters like this:

x = x.split(" ").join("");
if(x === "" || x === null){
  alert("At least 8 characters are required!");
  return false;
}

Demo

If neither of those work for you, try RegEx.

edited Jul 9, 2014 at 1:49

answered Jul 9, 2014 at 0:40

AstroCB

12.4k20 gold badges59 silver badges76 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Abraham Hamidi · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-09 03:33:25Z

0

trim() eliminates all spaces, so try

if (x===null || x.trim() === "") {
    alert("At least 8 characters are required!");
    return false;
}

edited Jul 9, 2014 at 3:33

answered Jul 9, 2014 at 0:36

Abraham Hamidi

13.9k3 gold badges39 silver badges52 bronze badges

2 Comments

Geraldine Over a year ago

Thanks. x.trim() != "" or x.trim() === "" ?

Abraham Hamidi Over a year ago

@IMayNeed Thanks for the notice. I'm usually not that oblivious :P

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Refusing Only Spaces in an input in a form in html

2 Answers 2

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related