Return true or false not working in JavaScript

Question

My return values are not working, and I need them to work so I can validate the page. I have a function in a function because there will be more code written which will require that kind of setup.

Here is the JavaScript code:

var postalconfig = /^\D{1}\d{1}\D{1}\-?\d{1}\D{1}\d{1}$/;

function outer(){
    function checkpostal(postal_code){
      if (postalconfig.test(document.myform.postal_code.value)) {
        alert("VALID SSN");
        return true;
      } else {
        alert("INVALID SSN");
        return false;
      }
    }
  checkpostal();
}

And the HTML:

<form name="myform" action="index.php" onSubmit="return outer();" method="post">
    Postal Code <input name="postal_code"  type="text" />
    <input name="Submit" type="submit"  value="Submit Form" >
</form>

Answer 1

Change checkpostal(); to return checkpostal();

like this:

var postalconfig = /^\D{1}\d{1}\D{1}\-?\d{1}\D{1}\d{1}$/;

function outer(){   

  function checkpostal(postal_code) {
    if (postalconfig.test(document.myform.postal_code.value)) {
      alert("VALID SSN");
      return true;
    } else {
      alert("INVALID SSN");
      return false;
    }
  }

  return checkpostal();

}

Answer 2

The problem here is that you are getting the return value of outer , but outer doesn't return anything. return true (or false ) only affects the current function, in this case, checkpostal .

You need to get outer to return the return value of checkpostal :

function outer() {
    function checkpostal(postal_code) {
        if (postalconfig.test(document.myform.postal_code.value)) {
            alert("VALID SSN");
            return true;
        } else {
            alert("INVALID SSN");
            return false;
        }
    }

    return checkpostal();
}

Answer 3

Looks like at the end of outer() it should be

return checkpostal();

rather than just

checkpostal();

The call to checkpostal() may return correctly, but onsubmit won't get the result, since outer() isn't returning anything.

Answer 4

You'll want to return the call to checkpostal:

function outer(){   

    function checkpostal(postal_code){
 if (postalconfig.test(document.myform.postal_code.value)) {
  alert("VALID SSN");
  return true;
 } else {
  alert("INVALID SSN");
  return false;
 }
}

return checkpostal();

}