assigning text to a textarea

Question

How can I do this in textarea

$(this).text() = $(this).text().substring(0, 20);

Answer 1

$(this).text($(this).text().substring(0, 20));

Answer 2

Always try to cache the selector in a var if you find yourself doing $(this) or $('#something') multiple times.

var $this = $(this);

$this.val( $this.val().substring(0, 20) );