Hi there.
I am writing JavaScript to allow user to input only alphabets in the textbox.
I am using regular expression: /[A-Za-z]/g
which is logically correct.
However, IE9, Crome 14 and Firefox 4 allows some specific characters: $%&(
Why is that.
Just copy and save the code as html. And help me to understand whats wrong.

<!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>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>JavaScript: Restrict keyboard character input</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var alphaOnly = /[A-Za-z]/g;                   //fname,lname,mname 
    function restrictCharacters(myfield, e, restrictionType) {
        if (!e) var e = window.event
        if (e.keyCode) code = e.keyCode;
        else if (e.which) code = e.which;
        var character = String.fromCharCode(code);
        // if they pressed esc... remove focus from field...
        if (code == 27) { this.blur(); return false; }
        // ignore if they are press other keys
        // strange because code: 39 is the down key AND ' key...
        // and DEL also equals .
        if (!e.ctrlKey && code != 9 && code != 8 && code != 36 && code != 37 && code != 38 && (code != 39 || (code == 39 && character == "'")) && code != 40) 
        {
                if (character.match(restrictionType)) 
                    return true;
                else 
                    return false;
        }

    }
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>JavaScript: Restrict keyboard character input</h1>
<p>This JavaScript restricts the character input the user can enter into an input or textarea. This is useful in aiding the user enter the correct information such as a number or username. You should also validate the input on the server-side.</p>
<form action="" method="get">
<p><label for="input1">First Name (alphabets only): </label> <input type="text" id="Text1" onkeypress="return restrictCharacters(this, event, alphaOnly);"  />
</form>
</body>
</html>

Please help me to understand whats wrong.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Because your if statement, which attempts to ignore certain keys actually, allows the symbols, it goes through from your "else" part which doesn't exists. You may try to put...

if (!e.ctrlKey && code != 9 && code != 8 && code != 36 && code != 37 && code != 38 && (code != 39 || (code == 39 && character == "'")) && code != 40) {
   if (character.match(restrictionType))
     return true;
   else 
     return false;
}
else {
   alert(code);
   return false;
}

right after your "if" statement to see what I mean...

commented: Seems to have Thorough Knoowledge +1

Oh god thanks a lot.

Can you please explain why we need to explicitly check for these characters along with those that I have checked with the line
if (!e.ctrlKey && code != 9 && code != 8 && code != 36 && code != 37 && code != 38 && (code != 39 || (code == 39 && character == "'")) && code != 40)

I thought only having check for reular expression /[A-Za-z]/g will do the thing, but it is not. Why this regular expression doesnt take care of these key codes?

Is there any other regular expression pattern to take these characters in consideration. like /[a-zA-Z][^\$\&]/ etc.

I thought only having check for reular expression /[A-Za-z]/g will do the thing, but it is not. Why this regular expression doesnt take care of these key codes?

Because those keys a user enter does not go through your "if" statement, which means the regex won't have a chance to test it. For example, a user press '&' and I think the key code is 38. Look closely at your "if" condition...

// key code is 38
if (!e.ctrlKey &&  //  !false -> true
     code != 9 &&  // true
     code != 8 &&  // true
     code != 36 &&  // true
     code != 37 &&  // true
     code != 38 &&  // FALSE!!!!
     (code != 39 ||
       (code == 39 &&
        character == "'")) &&
     code != 40)

Now you should see that your "if" statement is actually causing the problem...

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