Set value of textarea in jquery

Question

I am attempting to set a value in a textarea field using jquery with the following code:

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").attr("value", result.exampleMessage);

The issue is, once this code executes, it is not altering the text in the textarea?

However when performing an alert($("textarea#ExampleMessage").attr("value")) the newly set value is returned?

Answer 1

I think that since a <textarea> has the value stored in the content, you can't set the value attribute, and you have to instead use:

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").text(result.exampleMessage);

If that doesn't work, I'd check that your selector is actually returning something.

Answer 2

Have you tried val?

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").val(result.exampleMessage);

Answer 3

Yep tried both. This is just nuts. attr() and val() should both work, I'm sure of it.

Answer 4

I think this should work :

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").val(result.exampleMessage);

Answer 5

Textarea has no value attribute, its value comes between tags, i.e: <textarea>my text</textarea>, it is not like the input field (<input value="my text" />). That's why attr doesn't work :)

Answer 6

It works for me.... I have built a face book wall...

Here is the basis of my code:

// SETS MY TEXT AREA TO EMPTY (NO VALUE) $('textarea#message_wall').val('');

Answer 7

Oohh come on boys! it works just with $('#your_textarea_id').val('some_value');

Answer 8

I had an issue with using .text('somevalue'); in firefox 3.07, 3.15. Interestingly it worked fine in Firefox 3.5.* I know thats specific but it didnt pass my companies QA testing because of this.

However - I used .val() as this worked in all versions. Just for your info.

Answer 9

I had same issue and this solution didn't work but what worked was to use html

$('#your_textarea_id').html('some_value');

Answer 10

I tried with .val() .text() .html() and had some bugs using jQuery to read or set value of a textarea... i endup using native js

$('#message').blur( function() {

if (this.value == '') {
  this.value = msg_greeting;
}

});

Answer 11

using $("textarea#ExampleMessage").html('whatever you want to put here'); can be a good way, because .val() can have problems when you are using data from database.

example:

a database field named as description has the following value "asjkdfklasdjf

sjklñadf" , using .val() to assign value to textarea can be a tedious job.

Answer 12

Hi...........

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").val() in jquery just a magic.

You should notice that textarea tag using inner html to display and not in value attribute just like input tag.

<textarea>blah blah</textarea>
<input type="text" value="blah blah"/>

You should use

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").html(result.exampleMessage)

or

$("textarea#ExampleMessage").text(result.exampleMessage)

depend on if you want to display it as html tags or plain text.