jQuery Validate method checking for special characters

Question

I am trying (and failing) to write a regular expression statement that checks for special characters such as !@#$%^&*()_+<>?\'\"{}[] in my Javascript form validation.

Answer 1

Instead of writing your own custom method from scratch, include the additional-methods.js file and use the alphanumeric rule.

$(document).ready(function () {

    $('#myform').validate({
        rules: {
            field: {
                alphanumeric: true
            }
        }
    });

});

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/YsAKx/

---

If you don't want to include an additional external file, simply copy the default alphanumeric method out of it...

jQuery.validator.addMethod("alphanumeric", function(value, element) {
    return this.optional(element) || /^\w+$/i.test(value);
}, "Letters, numbers, and underscores only please");