What are HTML Input Elements?

About

An input element of a form control that permits to define a scalar value (single value)

Attributes

Full list Ref Doc

Type

The type attribute defined:

  • the default behavior
  • the design of the element.
  • and the type of data expected

See the list below

Id

If an input element has an id, it can be selected directly

<form>
<input id="user" type="text" value="Nico" />
<input id="age"  type="number" value="10" />
</form>
let form = document.querySelector("form");
console.log("User: "+form.user.value);
console.log("Age: "+form.age.value);

Name

The name attribute:

  • set a name to the value defined
  • groups input that defines the same value such as radio input.
  • if present, the input element can be accessed by name.
<form>
<input name="user" type="text" value="Nico" />
<input name="age"  type="number" value="10" />
</form>
let form = document.querySelector("form");
console.log("User: "+form.elements.user.value);
console.log("Age: "+form.elements['age'].value);

Form

The form attribute is the id of a element element in the same document.

  • [Optional] Default to the nearest containing form, if any.
  • Used when the input element is not a child element of the form.
<input id="user" type="text" value="foo" form="form_id"/>
<form id="form_id">
</form>
let form = document.querySelector("form");
console.log("User: "+form.user.value);

Pattern

  • pattern=“[a-z]{4,8}” pattern - a regular expression that the input's value must match in order for the value to pass constraint validation.

Value

The value attribute:

  • set the default value
  • and holds the current value

Default to:

  • the empty string for a text

When the value changes, it fires an input event.

handleSubmit = () => {
let form = document.querySelector("form");
alert("Field value: "+form.elements.field.value);
};
<form onSubmit="handleSubmit()">
<input name="field" type="text" value="Change Me and Submit"/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>

list

The list attributes refers to a datalist that defines a set of permitted values.

Unfortunately, the list behavior is not specified and it filters by default leaving out the other values once a value was selected.

autocomplete

The autocomplete attribute describes the semantic of the value in order to auto-fill the form.

Multiple

The multiple attribute is a boolean attribute that indicates whether the user is to be allowed to specify more than one value.

Others

  • required
  • size=10 input value length (in em for a text, otherwise pixel)

See:

Valid

If the input controls are not valid (successful), they are not added to the data of the form when submitted.

Input Type by Data type

Text

Text

text represents a couple of words or a line of text. For multiple lines, you would use the textarea HTML element

Example:

<!-- Label is coupled to input via the for attributes that define the input id -->
<label for="textId">Choose a username: </label> 
<input id="textId"  name="textName" type="text"  placeholder="text input" />

Attribute:

  • size is the length in em (1 unit = 1 character). CSS width takes precedence over size attribute.
  • autocomplete is also on by default.

input/search is a search box Identical to text inputs, but may be styled differently by the user agent. More … see How to use a HTML Input Search Element to create a Search box?

Email

See the page: How to get and validate an email address with an HTML form?

Password

The input type password 1) represents a password.

Example:

<input type="password"  placeholder="password input" />

Number

Number

en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/number

<input 
    type="number"  
    placeholder="0" 
    step="0.01"/>

Range

en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/range

<input type="range"  placeholder="range input" />

Color

See How to add a color in a HTML input form?

Date (Day, Time, month)

See How to create a date field in an HTML form? (at the month, day, hour and minute level)

File

The file input permits to choose files from the local file system.

Example: To pick one file:

<input type="file" webkitdirectory  />

For more example, see the dedicated page: How to work with an Input File in an HTML form?

Telephone

en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/tel. One of the main advantages of is that it causes mobile browsers to display a special keyboard for entering phone numbers.

<input type="tel"  placeholder="+31600000" />

Boolean

Checkbox

How to create and use a HTML checkbox ?

Radio

HTML - Radio

Submit

Image

input/image is a graphical submit button.

Submit

input/submit is a submit element that will submit the form.

Button

In html, there is two kind of button:

  • the en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/button - no default behavior expected that the text of the button is given by the value property
  • the button elements:
    • much easier to style than <input> elements.
      • You can add inner HTML content (think <i>, <br>, or even <img>),
      • and use ::after and ::before pseudo-elements for complex rendering.
    • and where you can add a submit behavior

Event

When the value changes, it fires an input event.

2) 3)





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