Htykuut

I'd like to use jQuery's validation plugin to validate a field that only accepts alphabetical characters, but there doesn't seem to be a defined rule for it. I've searched google but I've found nothing useful.

Any ideas?

Appreciate your help.

If you include the additional methods file, here's the current file for 1.7: http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.7/additional-methods.js

You can use the lettersonly rule :) The additional methods are part of the zip you download, you can always find the latest here.

Here's an example:

$("form").validate({

  rules: {

    myField: { lettersonly: true }

  }

});

It's worth noting, each additional method is independent, you can include that specific one, just place this before your .validate() call:

jQuery.validator.addMethod("lettersonly", function(value, element) {

  return this.optional(element) || /^[a-z]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Letters only please"); 

Be careful,

jQuery.validator.addMethod("lettersonly", function(value, element) 

{

return this.optional(element) || /^[a-z," "]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Letters and spaces only please"); 

[a-z, " "] by adding the comma and quotation marks, you are allowing spaces, commas and quotation marks into the input box.

For spaces + text, just do this:

jQuery.validator.addMethod("lettersonly", function(value, element) 

{

return this.optional(element) || /^[a-z ]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Letters and spaces only please");

[a-z ] this allows spaces aswell as text only.

............................................................................

also the message "Letters and spaces only please" is not required, if you already have a message in messages:

messages:{

        firstname:{

        required: "Enter your first name",

        minlength: jQuery.format("Enter at least (2) characters"),

        maxlength:jQuery.format("First name too long more than (80) characters"),

        lettersonly:jQuery.format("letters only mate")

        },

Adam

Just a small addition to Nick's answer (which works great !) :

If you want to allow spaces in between letters, for example ,
you may restrict to enter only letters in full name, but it should allow space as well - just list the space as below with a comma. And in the same way if you need to allow any other specific character:

jQuery.validator.addMethod("lettersonly", function(value, element) 

{

return this.optional(element) || /^[a-z," "]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Letters and spaces only please");       

Both Nick and Adam's answers work really well.

I'd like to add a note if you want to allow latin characters like á and ç as I wanted to do:

jQuery.validator.addMethod('lettersonly', function(value, element) {

    return this.optional(element) || /^[a-z áãâäàéêëèíîïìóõôöòúûüùçñ]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Letters and spaces only please");

to allow letters ans spaces

jQuery.validator.addMethod("lettersonly", function(value, element) {

return this.optional(element) || /^[a-zs]+$/i.test(value);

}, "Only alphabetical characters");



$('#yourform').validate({

        rules: {

            name_field: {

                lettersonly: true

            }

        }

    });

 $('.AlphabetsOnly').keypress(function (e) {

        var regex = new RegExp(/^[a-zA-Zs]+$/);

        var str = String.fromCharCode(!e.charCode ? e.which : e.charCode);

        if (regex.test(str)) {

            return true;

        }

        else {

            e.preventDefault();

            return false;

        }

    });