Count characters in textarea

What errors are you seeing in the browser? I can understand why your code doesn't work if what you posted was incomplete, but without knowing that I can't know for sure.

You should probably clear the charNum div, or write something, if they are over the limit.

function countChar(val) {
  var len = val.value.length;
  if (len >= 500) {
    val.value = val.value.substring(0, 500);
  } else {
    $('#charNum').text(500 - len);
  }
};

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<textarea id="field" onkeyup="countChar(this)"></textarea>
<div id="charNum"></div>

⚠️ The accepted solution is flawed.

Here are two scenarios where the keyup event will not get fired:

The user drags text into the textarea.
The user copy-paste text in the textarea with a right click (contextual menu).

Use the HTML5 input event instead for a more robust solution:

JavaScript (demo):

const textarea = document.querySelector("textarea");

textarea.addEventListener("input", ({ currentTarget: target }) => {
  const maxLength = target.getAttribute("maxlength");
  const currentLength = target.value.length;

  if (currentLength >= maxLength) {
    return console.log("You have reached the maximum number of characters.");
  }

  console.log(`${maxLength - currentLength} chars left`);
});

<textarea maxlength='140'></textarea>

And if you absolutely want to use jQuery:

$('textarea').on("input", function() {
  var maxlength = $(this).attr("maxlength");
  var currentLength = $(this).val().length;

  if (currentLength >= maxlength) {
    return console.log("You have reached the maximum number of characters.");
  }

  console.log(maxlength - currentLength + " chars left");
});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<textarea maxlength='140'></textarea>

Count characters in textarea

⚠️ The accepted solution is flawed.

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