hi i need to validate textarea of a html form using php <textarea name="comments" cols="26" rows="3" id="comments"><?php echo($comments);?></textarea> presently my php code to validate the text area is if($comments == "" ) { $error.="<br>Please enter your comments"; } with this code if a user hits the space bar once or couple of times as a matter of fact there are no characters entered by the user i do not want this to happen, if a user simply hits the spacebar and does not type anything i should be able to display an alert message. please advice how i can change the above php code. thanks.