Question

How can i restrict ‘♥♣’ like characters from saving into database. If these characters appear in name text field, a error message should be thrown.
I am using ruby on rails.

Thanks,
Anubhaw

Answer 1

See this for an example of allowing only a specific set of characters (whitelisting), which IMO is better and safer:

var allowed = /[a-ZA-Z0-9]/; // etc.

window.onload = function () {
    var input = document.getElementById("test");

    input.onkeypress = function () {
        // Cross-browser
        var evt = arguments[0] || event;
        var char = String.fromCharCode(evt.which || evt.keyCode);

        // Is the key allowed?
        if (!allowed.test(char)) {
            // Cancel the original event
            evt.cancelBubble = true;
            return false;
        }
    }
};

From:
prevent typing non ascii characters in a textbox

Alternately you can use regex to strip out non ascii characters.

see here: How to remove all non – ASCII characters from a string in Ruby