jQuery Validation plugin: How to force a certain phone number format ###-###-####

Question

I have jQuery Validation plugin on a page. When someone types the phone number into the form field, I want the validator to only recognize a certain format:

###-###-####

I see this in the JavaScript:

phone_number: {
    required: true,
    number: true 
},

Can I add something there to specify the required format for the phone number? I found something about adding the jQuery Mask plugin, but if I can avoid it, I'd rather not add to the page weight. (Plus...surely there must exist some way to validate only a certain format.)

Solution 1

@Sparky's suggestion is good if you are a little flexible, but just in case you want just that format, you can add a custom rule:

$.validator.addMethod('customphone', function (value, element) {
    return this.optional(element) || /^\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}$/.test(value);
}, "Please enter a valid phone number");

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("#myform").validate({
        rules: {
            field1: 'customphone'
        }
    });
});

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/kqczf/16/

You can easily make this into a custom class rule. This way you could just add a class to each input that you want to have the rule and possibly omit the rules object from the validate call:

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("#myform").validate();
});

<input type="text" name="field1" id="field1" class="required customphone" />

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/kqczf/17/

Solution 2

Simply use the phoneUS rule included in the jQuery Validate plugin's additional-methods.js file.

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/c9zy9/

$(document).ready(function () {

    $('#myform').validate({ // initialize the plugin
        rules: {
            phone_number: {
                required: true,
                phoneUS: true
            }
        }
    });

});

Alternatively, instead of including the entire additional-methods.js file, you can just pull out the phoneUS method.

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/dSz5j/

$(document).ready(function () {

    jQuery.validator.addMethod("phoneUS", function (phone_number, element) {
        phone_number = phone_number.replace(/\s+/g, "");
        return this.optional(element) || phone_number.length > 9 && phone_number.match(/^(\+?1-?)?(\([2-9]\d{2}\)|[2-9]\d{2})-?[2-9]\d{2}-?\d{4}$/);
    }, "Please specify a valid phone number");

    $('#myform').validate({ // initialize the plugin
        rules: {
            phone_number: {
                required: true,
                phoneUS: true
            }
        }
    });

});

Solution 3

Check out the jQuery Masked Input Plugin. It allows you to mask the input with something like this:

$("#phone_number").mask("999-999-9999");

Comments

[Andrew Whitaker]

This isn't exactly what the user wants--the dashes are optional and +1 is also allowed.

[Sparky]

@AndrewWhitaker, I appreciate that but sometimes the user doesn't even know these rules already exist.

[Admin]

In this case, I wasn't aware that the rule existed, so that you for that. But we do need it to be that very exact format; and for our current purposes, they're telling me that they don't care about non-US phone numbers. (Which I think is going to bite them in the backside, but...there ya go. They've heard my objections, they've given their decision.)

[Admin]

Thank you; but I'd like to try and accomplish this without adding any additional plugins.

[Admin]

Thanks @Andrew - that looks like what I'm trying to do. Do I add that into the document header, and just make sure that it calls out the proper form ID? (And for cases where this is a global include, and I want to add this action to a few different form IDs, can I have multiple form IDs? And for the field1 - does that need to match the field's class name, or id, or both?)

[Andrew Whitaker]

You could use a class rule, I'll update my answer. If you do it for each form, the rule key (field1) needs to match up with the field name. Sounds like using a class rule is what you want though, I'll update the answer.

[Andrew Whitaker]

@Leigh: You can put the $.validator.addMethod and $.validator.addClassRules` lines in your document header. Your call to .validate should occur when the document is ready.

[Sparky]

You do not need the addClassRules method to simply use this custom rule within class. See: jsfiddle.net/kqczf/18

[Andrew Whitaker]

@Sparky: Thanks for the tip, I didn't realize it would work without it.

[Sparky]

You'd need the addClassRules method if you wanted to assign a "compound" rule to a class name: jsfiddle.net/kqczf/19

[Fabio Pigagnelli]

Very useful, thank you. It was exactly what I was looking for.