name (HTML attribute)
| Depr. | Version |
|---|---|
| No | HTML 2 |
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | SA1.3+ | OP9.2+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Full | Full | Full |
Syntax
Description
The name attribute is
used to reference form data after it’s submitted, and
to reference the data using JavaScript on the client side. Unlike the
id attribute, which must be given a unique value
each time it’s applied to a new form control, a
name attribute with a given value may be applied to
numerous form controls (although in practice this approach is
only used with radio input buttons). Note that
only form elements which have a
name attribute will have their values passed
through to the page or script specified in the form’s
action attribute.
Example
Thisname
attribute, which is set to "pin", provides a means for
referencing the input data: <form> <label for="pin">Your 4-digit PIN:</label> <input type="password" name="pin" id="pin" maxlength="4" size="6"/> ⋮ </form>
Value
This attribute takes any name that the developer chooses, as long as it doesn’t contain any spaces or special characters.
Compatibility
| Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 9.2 | 9.5 |
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
It causes no compatibility issues, and has excellent support across all tested browsers.
User-contributed notes
- ID:
- #1
- Date:
- Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:17:05 GMT
It's not true that using the same name for multiple form controls only happens with radio buttons. It's quite a common approach when you have a large number of checkboxes, too, although not all server-side technologies support it. (Perhaps not all browsers, either, for that matter.)
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