Get value from text area [duplicate]

Answer 1

Use .val() to get value of textarea and use $.trim() to empty spaces.

$(document).ready(function () {
    if ($.trim($("textarea").val()) != "") {
        alert($("textarea").val());
    }
});

Or, Here's what I would do for clean code,

$(document).ready(function () {
    var val = $.trim($("textarea").val());
    if (val != "") {
        alert(val);
    }
});

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/jVUsZ/