Check if inputs are empty using jQuery

Keith Donegan picture Keith Donegan · Dec 6, 2009 · Viewed 1.2M times · Source

I have a form that I would like all fields to be filled in. If a field is clicked into and then not filled out, I would like to display a red background.

Here is my code:

$('#apply-form input').blur(function () {
  if ($('input:text').is(":empty")) {
    $(this).parents('p').addClass('warning');
  }
});

It applies the warning class regardless of the field being filled in or not.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer

meder omuraliev picture meder omuraliev · Dec 6, 2009
$('#apply-form input').blur(function()
{
    if( !$(this).val() ) {
          $(this).parents('p').addClass('warning');
    }
});

And you don't necessarily need .length or see if it's >0 since an empty string evaluates to false anyway but if you'd like to for readability purposes:

$('#apply-form input').blur(function()
{
    if( $(this).val().length === 0 ) {
        $(this).parents('p').addClass('warning');
    }
});

If you're sure it will always operate on a textfield element then you can just use this.value.

$('#apply-form input').blur(function()
{
      if( !this.value ) {
            $(this).parents('p').addClass('warning');
      }
});

Also you should take note that $('input:text') grabs multiple elements, specify a context or use the this keyword if you just want a reference to a lone element (provided there's one textfield in the context's descendants/children).