Making sure at least one checkbox is checked

I have a form with multiple checkboxes and I want to use JavaScript to make sure at least one is checked. This is what I have right now but no matter what is chosen an alert pops up.

JS (wrong)

function valthis(){
 if (document.FC.c1.checked) {
   alert ("thank you for checking a checkbox")
  } else  {
   alert ("please check a checkbox")
  }
}

HTML

<p>Please select at least one Checkbox</p>
<br>
<br>
<form name = "FC">
<input type = "checkbox" name = "c1" value = "c1"/> C1 
<br>
<input type = "checkbox" name = "c1" value = "c2"/> C2
<br>
<input type = "checkbox" name = "c1" value = "c3"/> C3
<br> 
<input type = "checkbox" name = "c1" value = "c4"/> C4 
<br>
</form>
<br>
<br>

<input type = "button" value = "Edit and Report" onClick = "valthisform();">

So what I ended up doing in JS was this:

function valthisform(){
 var chkd = document.FC.c1.checked || document.FC.c2.checked||document.FC.c3.checked|| document.FC.c4.checked

 if (chkd == true){

 } else {
    alert ("please check a checkbox")
 }

}

I decided to drop the "Thank you" part to fit in with the rest of the assignment. Thank you so much, every ones advice really helped out.

You should avoid having two checkboxes with the same name if you plan to reference them like document.FC.c1. If you have multiple checkboxes named c1 how will the browser know which you are referring to?

Here's a non-jQuery solution to check if any checkboxes on the page are checked.

var checkboxes = document.querySelectorAll('input[type="checkbox"]');
var checkedOne = Array.prototype.slice.call(checkboxes).some(x => x.checked);

You need the Array.prototype.slice.call part to convert the NodeList returned by document.querySelectorAll into an array that you can call some on.

This should work:

function valthisform()
{
    var checkboxs=document.getElementsByName("c1");
    var okay=false;
    for(var i=0,l=checkboxs.length;i<l;i++)
    {
        if(checkboxs[i].checked)
        {
            okay=true;
            break;
        }
    }
    if(okay)alert("Thank you for checking a checkbox");
    else alert("Please check a checkbox");
}

If you have a question about the code, just comment.

^{I use l=checkboxs.length to improve the performance. See http://www.erichynds.com/javascript/javascript-loop-performance-caching-the-length-property-of-an-array/}

I would opt for a more functional approach. Since ES6 we have been given such nice tools to solve our problems, so why not use them. Let's begin with giving the checkboxes a class so we can round them up very nicely. I prefer to use a class instead of input[type="checkbox"] because now the solution is more generic and can be used also when you have more groups of checkboxes in your document.

HTML

    <input type="checkbox" class="checkbox" value=ck1 /> ck1<br />
    <input type="checkbox" class="checkbox" value=ck2 /> ck2<br />

JavaScript

function atLeastOneCheckboxIsChecked(){
    const checkboxes = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".checkbox"));
    return checkboxes.reduce((acc, curr) => acc || curr.checked, false);
}

When called, the function will return false if no checkbox has been checked and true if one or both is.

It works as follows, the reducer function has two arguments, the accumulator (acc) and the current value (curr). For every iteration over the array, the reducer will return true if either the accumulator or the current value is true. the return value of the previous iteration is the accumulator of the current iteration, therefore, if it ever is true, it will stay true until the end.

Check this.

You can't access form inputs via their name. Use document.getElements methods instead.

Vanilla JS:

var checkboxes = document.getElementsByClassName('activityCheckbox'); // puts all your checkboxes in a variable

function activitiesReset() {
    var checkboxesChecked = function () { // if a checkbox is checked, function ends and returns true. If all checkboxes have been iterated through (which means they are all unchecked), returns false.
        for (var i = 0; i < checkboxes.length; i++) {
            if (checkboxes[i].checked) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }
    error[2].style.display = 'none'; // an array item specific to my project - it's a red label which says 'Please check a checkbox!'. Here its display is set to none, so the initial non-error label is visible instead. 
        if (submitCounter > 0 && checkboxesChecked() === false) { // if a form submit has been attempted, and if all checkboxes are unchecked
            error[2].style.display = 'block'; // red error label is now visible.
        }
}

for (var i=0; i<checkboxes.length; i++) {  // whenever a checkbox is checked or unchecked, activitiesReset runs.
    checkboxes[i].addEventListener('change', activitiesReset);
}

Explanation:
Once a form submit has been attempted, this will update your checkbox section's label to notify the user to check a checkbox if he/she hasn't yet. If no checkboxes are checked, a hidden 'error' label is revealed prompting the user to 'Please check a checkbox!'. If the user checks at least one checkbox, the red label is instantaneously hidden again, revealing the original label. If the user again un-checks all checkboxes, the red label returns in real-time. This is made possible by JavaScript's onchange event (written as .addEventListener('change', function(){});