Question

I am working on a character count based on this post.
I would like to call the function on window load but seem to be having issues, otherwise everything works.
Can anyone lend a hand on getting the count on load please.
heres my fiddle

function countChar(val){
    var len = val.value.length;

    if (len >= 500) {
            val.value = val.value.substring(0, 500);
            $('#stat span').text(0);
    }else {
            $('#stat span').text(500 - len);
    }
}

$(function(){
    var inputT = $('#descTextArea').val();
    //countChar(inputT);//this is breaking the code

    $('#descTextArea').keyup(function(){
        countChar(this);
    });

});

Answer 1

Try this instead

function countChar(val) {
    var len = val.value.length;
    if (len >= 500) {
        val.value = val.value.substring(0, 500);
        $('#stat span').text(0);
    } else {
        $('#stat span').text(500 - len);
    }
}
countChar($('#descTextArea').get(0));
$('#descTextArea').keyup(function() {
    countChar(this);
});​

jsFiddle example

In your code you were passing a string (the value) into your function which is trying to get the length of an element. Instead, by calling countChar($('#descTextArea').get(0)); you’re just passing the element and allowing the function to find the length of the input as you intended.