How do I make an input field accept only letters in javaScript?

Question

function validate() {
if(document.myForm.name.value =="" ){
alert("Enter a name");
document.myForm.name.focus();
return false;
}

This is what I've written it for an empty string, now i need it to accept only letters?

Answer 1

If you want only letters - so from a to z, lower case or upper case, excluding everything else (numbers, blank spaces, symbols), you can modify your function like this:

function validate() {
    if (document.myForm.name.value == "") {
        alert("Enter a name");
        document.myForm.name.focus();
        return false;
    }
    if (!/^[a-zA-Z]*$/g.test(document.myForm.name.value)) {
        alert("Invalid characters");
        document.myForm.name.focus();
        return false;
    }
}

Answer 2

function alphaOnly(event) {
  var key = event.keyCode;
  return ((key >= 65 && key <= 90) || key == 8);
};

or

function lettersOnly(evt) {
       evt = (evt) ? evt : event;
       var charCode = (evt.charCode) ? evt.charCode : ((evt.keyCode) ? evt.keyCode :
          ((evt.which) ? evt.which : 0));
       if (charCode > 31 && (charCode < 65 || charCode > 90) &&
          (charCode < 97 || charCode > 122)) {
          alert("Enter letters only.");
          return false;
       }
       return true;
     }