How do I get the value of text input field using JavaScript?

Question

I am working on a search with JavaScript. I would use a form, but it messes up something else on my page. I have this input text field:

<input name="searchTxt" type="text" maxlength="512" id="searchTxt" class="searchField"/>

And this is my JavaScript code:

<script type="text/javascript">
  function searchURL(){
    window.location = "http://www.myurl.com/search/" + (input text value);
  }
</script>

How do I get the value from the text field into JavaScript?

Answer 1

There are various methods to get an input textbox value directly (without wrapping the input element inside a form element):

Method 1

document.getElementById('textbox_id').value to get the value of desired box

For example

document.getElementById("searchTxt").value;

  Note: Method 2,3,4 and 6 returns a collection of elements, so use [whole_number] to get the desired occurrence. For the first element, use [0], for the second one use [1], and so on...

Method 2

Use document.getElementsByClassName('class_name')[whole_number].value which returns a Live HTMLCollection

For example

document.getElementsByClassName("searchField")[0].value; if this is the first textbox in your page.

Method 3

Use document.getElementsByTagName('tag_name')[whole_number].value which also returns a live HTMLCollection

For example

document.getElementsByTagName("input")[0].value;, if this is the first textbox in your page.

Method 4

document.getElementsByName('name')[whole_number].value which also >returns a live NodeList

For example

document.getElementsByName("searchTxt")[0].value; if this is the first textbox with name 'searchtext' in your page.

Method 5

Use the powerful document.querySelector('selector').value which uses a CSS selector to select the element

For example

• document.querySelector('#searchTxt').value; selected by id
• document.querySelector('.searchField').value; selected by class
• document.querySelector('input').value; selected by tagname
• document.querySelector('[name="searchTxt"]').value; selected by name

Method 6

document.querySelectorAll('selector')[whole_number].value which also uses a CSS selector to select elements, but it returns all elements with that selector as a static Nodelist.

For example

• document.querySelectorAll('#searchTxt')[0].value; selected by id
• document.querySelectorAll('.searchField')[0].value; selected by class
• document.querySelectorAll('input')[0].value; selected by tagname
• document.querySelectorAll('[name="searchTxt"]')[0].value; selected by name

Support

Browser	Method1	Method2	Method3	Method4	Method5/6
IE6	Y(Buggy)	N	Y	Y(Buggy)	N
IE7	Y(Buggy)	N	Y	Y(Buggy)	N
IE8	Y	N	Y	Y(Buggy)	Y
IE9	Y	Y	Y	Y(Buggy)	Y
IE10	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
FF3.0	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
FF3.5/FF3.6	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
FF4b1	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
GC4/GC5	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y Y=YES,N=NO
Safari4/Safari5	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Opera10.10/
Opera10.53/	Y	Y	Y	Y(Buggy)	Y
Opera10.60
Opera 12	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Key:

IE=Internet Explorer

FF=Mozilla Firefox

GC=Google Chrome

Useful links

1. To see the support of these methods with all the bugs including more details click here
2. Difference Between Static collections and Live collections click Here
3. Difference Between NodeList and HTMLCollection click Here

Answer 2

You can use onkeyup when you have more than one input field. Suppose you have four or input. Then document.getElementById('something').value is annoying. We need to write four lines to fetch the value of an input field.

So, you can create a function that store value in object on keyup or keydown event.

Example:

<div class="container">
    <div>
        <label for="">Name</label>
        <input type="text" name="fname" id="fname" onkeyup=handleInput(this)>
    </div>
    <div>
        <label for="">Age</label>
        <input type="number" name="age" id="age" onkeyup=handleInput(this)>
    </div>
    <div>
        <label for="">Email</label>
        <input type="text" name="email" id="email" onkeyup=handleInput(this)>
    </div>
    <div>
        <label for="">Mobile</label>
        <input type="number" name="mobile" id="number" onkeyup=handleInput(this)>
    </div>
    <div>
        <button onclick=submitData()>Submit</button>
    </div>
</div>

JavaScript:

<script>
    const data = { };

    function handleInput(e){
        data[e.name] = e.value;
    }

    function submitData(){
        console.log(data.fname); // Get the first name from the object
        console.log(data); // return object
    }
</script>

Answer 3

If your input is in a form and you want to get the value after submit you can do like:

<form onsubmit="submitLoginForm(event)">
    <input type="text" name="name">
    <input type="password" name="password">
    <input type="submit" value="Login">
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">

    function submitLoginForm(event){
        event.preventDefault();

        console.log(event.target['name'].value);
        console.log(event.target['password'].value);
    }
</script>

Benefit of this way: Example your page have 2 form for input sender and receiver information.

If you don't use form for get value then

• You can set two different id (or tag or name ...) for each field like sender-name and receiver-name, sender-address and receiver-address, ...
• If you set the same value for two inputs, then after getElementsByName (or getElementsByTagName ...) you need to remember 0 or 1 is sender or receiver. Later, if you change the order of 2 form in HTML, you need to check this code again

If you use form, then you can use name, address, ...

Answer 4

Simple JavaScript:

function copytext(text) {
    var textField = document.createElement('textarea');
    textField.innerText = text;
    document.body.appendChild(textField);
    textField.select();
    document.execCommand('copy');
    textField.remove();
}

Answer 5

<input id="new" >
<button  onselect="myFunction()">it</button>
<script>
    function myFunction() {
        document.getElementById("new").value = "a";
    }
</script>

Answer 6

Tested in Chrome and Firefox:

Get value by element id:

<input type="text" maxlength="512" id="searchTxt" class="searchField"/>
<input type="button" value="Get Value" onclick="alert(searchTxt.value)">

Set value in form element:

<form name="calc" id="calculator">
  <input type="text" name="input">
  <input type="button" value="Set Value" onclick="calc.input.value='Set Value'">
</form>

https://jsfiddle.net/tuq79821/

Also have a look at a JavaScript calculator implementation.

From @bugwheels94: when using this method, be aware of this issue.

Answer 7

<input type="text" onkeyup="trackChange(this.value)" id="myInput">
<script>
    function trackChange(value) {
        window.open("http://www.google.com/search?output=search&q=" + value)
    }
</script>

Answer 8

Short

You can read value by searchTxt.value

<input name="searchTxt" type="text" maxlength="512" id="searchTxt" class="searchField"/>

<script type="text/javascript">
  function searchURL(){
    console.log(searchTxt.value);
    // window.location = "http://www.myurl.com/search/" + searchTxt.value;
  }
</script>





<!-- SHORT ugly test code -->
<button class="search" onclick="searchURL()">Search</button>

Answer 9

Short Answer

You can get the value of text input field using JavaScript with this code: input_text_value = console.log(document.getElementById("searchTxt").value)

More info

textObject has a property of value you can set and get this property.

To set you can assign a new value: document.getElementById("searchTxt").value = "new value"

Answer 10

function handleValueChange() {
    var y = document.getElementById('textbox_id').value;
    var x = document.getElementById('result');
    x.innerHTML = y;
}

function changeTextarea() {
  var a = document.getElementById('text-area').value;
  var b = document.getElementById('text-area-result');
  b.innerHTML = a;
}

input {
  padding: 5px;
}

p {
  white-space: pre;
}

<input type="text" id="textbox_id" placeholder="Enter string here..." oninput="handleValueChange()">
<p id="result"></p>

<textarea name="" id="text-area" cols="20" rows="5" oninput="changeTextarea()"></textarea>
<p id="text-area-result"></p>

Answer 11

function searchURL() {
   window.location = 'http://www.myurl.com/search/' + searchTxt.value
}

So basically searchTxt.value will return the value of the input field with id='searchTxt'.

Answer 12

You should be able to type:

var input = document.getElementById("searchTxt");

function searchURL() {
     window.location = "http://www.myurl.com/search/" + input.value;
}

<input name="searchTxt" type="text" maxlength="512" id="searchTxt" class="searchField"/>

I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but this one seems to work across all browsers, and it requires minimal understanding of JavaScript to make, improve, and edit.

Answer 13

One can use the form.elements to get all elements in a form. If an element has id it can be found with .namedItem("id"). Example:

var myForm = document.getElementById("form1");
var text = myForm.elements.namedItem("searchTxt").value;
var url = "http://www.myurl.com/search/" + text;

Source: w3schools

Answer 14

//creates a listener for when you press a key
window.onkeyup = keyup;

//creates a global Javascript variable
var inputTextValue;

function keyup(e) {
  //setting your input text to the global Javascript Variable for every key press
  inputTextValue = e.target.value;

  //listens for you to press the ENTER key, at which point your web address will change to the one you have input in the search box
  if (e.keyCode == 13) {
    window.location = "http://www.myurl.com/search/" + inputTextValue;
  }
}

See this functioning in codepen.

Answer 15

I would create a variable to store the input like this:

var input = document.getElementById("input_id").value;

And then I would just use the variable to add the input value to the string.

= "Your string" + input;

Answer 16

Also you can, call by tags names, like this: form_name.input_name.value; So you will have the specific value of determined input in a specific form.