Note: This is an updated answer. Comments below refer to an old version which messed around with keycodes.
JavaScript
Try it yourself on JSFiddle.
You can filter the input values of a text <input>
with the following setInputFilter
function (supports Copy+Paste, Drag+Drop, keyboard shortcuts, context menu operations, non-typeable keys, the caret position, different keyboard layouts, and all browsers since IE 9):
// Restricts input for the given textbox to the given inputFilter function. function setInputFilter(textbox, inputFilter) { ["input", "keydown", "keyup", "mousedown", "mouseup", "select", "contextmenu", "drop"].forEach(function(event) { textbox.addEventListener(event, function() { if (inputFilter(this.value)) { this.oldValue = this.value; this.oldSelectionStart = this.selectionStart; this.oldSelectionEnd = this.selectionEnd; } else if (this.hasOwnProperty("oldValue")) { this.value = this.oldValue; this.setSelectionRange(this.oldSelectionStart, this.oldSelectionEnd); } else { this.value = ""; } }); }); }
You can now use the setInputFilter
function to install an input filter:
setInputFilter(document.getElementById("myTextBox"), function(value) { return /^\d*\.?\d*$/.test(value); // Allow digits and '.' only, using a RegExp });
See the JSFiddle demo for more input filter examples. Also note that you still must do server side validation!
TypeScript
Here is a TypeScript version of this.
function setInputFilter(textbox: Element, inputFilter: (value: string) => boolean): void { ["input", "keydown", "keyup", "mousedown", "mouseup", "select", "contextmenu", "drop"].forEach(function(event) { textbox.addEventListener(event, function(this: (HTMLInputElement | HTMLTextAreaElement) & {oldValue: string; oldSelectionStart: number | null, oldSelectionEnd: number | null}) { if (inputFilter(this.value)) { this.oldValue = this.value; this.oldSelectionStart = this.selectionStart; this.oldSelectionEnd = this.selectionEnd; } else if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(this, 'oldValue')) { this.value = this.oldValue; if (this.oldSelectionStart !== null && this.oldSelectionEnd !== null) { this.setSelectionRange(this.oldSelectionStart, this.oldSelectionEnd); } } else { this.value = ""; } }); }); }
jQuery
There is also a jQuery version of this. See this answer.
HTML 5
HTML 5 has a native solution with <input type="number">
(see the specification), but note that browser support varies:
- Most browsers will only validate the input when submitting the form, and not when typing.
- Most mobile browsers don’t support the
step
,min
andmax
attributes. - Chrome (version 71.0.3578.98) still allows the user to enter the characters
e
andE
into the field. Also see this question. - Firefox (version 64.0) and Edge (EdgeHTML version 17.17134) still allow the user to enter any text into the field.
Try it yourself on w3schools.com.