Can someone please explain this piece of code?

Question

1.00/5 (2 votes)

See more:

function validateForm() {
var x = document.forms["myForm"]["fname"].value;
if (x == "") {
alert("Name must be filled out");
return false;
}
}

What I have tried:

Explain the second line please and why we need to use return false?

Posted 1-May-17 20:12pm

Thenewbieee

Updated 1-May-17 20:40pm

v2

Add a Solution

Comments

Debarshi Chakraborty 2-May-17 2:39am

that's the name of the control. fname stands for 'first name'. (guessed it from the error message). you need to check from where this function is called. the 'false' can be used either to stay on the form or perform some other activities (some rollback or so)

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2017-05-01T20:40:00

document.forms will return a collection of all of the forms within a page.
So document.forms["myForm"] will return the form with the name "myForm" from that collection.
And document.forms["myForm"]["myElement"] will return an element of that form - a control for example.
So document.forms["myForm"]["myElement"].value will return the current data in that control.
I.e. in your case

JavaScript

var x = document.forms["myForm"]["fname"].value;

Gets what the user typed in the control fname and stores in in a variable called x

This is a validation function: it's purpose is to tell the outside world if what the user typed was acceptable. If it isn't, it returns false to indicate that.