Simple Textarea Word Counter jQuery Plugin

I know there are a few textarea word counter jQuery plugins out there already, but I felt like building my own since I wasn’t a fan of the ones that are available. Nothing new here but I did my best at making it as simple to use and efficient as possible.

/**
 * jQuery.textareaCounter
 * Version 1.0
 * Copyright (c) 2011 c.bavota - http://bavotasan.com
 * Dual licensed under MIT and GPL.
 * Date: 10/20/2011
**/
(function($){
	$.fn.textareaCounter = function(options) {
		// setting the defaults
		// $("textarea").textareaCounter({ limit: 100 });
		var defaults = {
			limit: 100
		};	
		var options = $.extend(defaults, options);
 
		// and the plugin begins
		return this.each(function() {
			var obj, text, wordcount, limited;
			
			obj = $(this);
			obj.after('Max. '+options.limit+' words');

			obj.keyup(function() {
			    text = obj.val();
			    if(text === "") {
			    	wordcount = 0;
			    } else {
				    wordcount = $.trim(text).split(" ").length;
				}
			    if(wordcount > options.limit) {
			        $("#counter-text").html('0 words left');
					limited = $.trim(text).split(" ", options.limit);
					limited = limited.join(" ");
					$(this).val(limited);
			    } else {
			        $("#counter-text").html((options.limit - wordcount)+' words left');
			    } 
			});
		});
	};
})(jQuery);

Load that up and then you can use the following to make it work:

$("textarea").textareaCounter({ limit: 100 });

The default limits to 100 words but you can change that to whatever you like. Here is a simple HTML setup using the plugin:

That would give you a textarea box that looks like this: