<form>: The Form element #

Enter your name:

  <div class="form-example">
    <label for="email">Enter your email: </label>
    <input type="email" name="email" id="email" required />
  
  <div class="form-example">
    <input type="submit" value="Subscribe!" />
  
</form>

::: :::

::: {#css-panel .section .hidden tabindex=“0” role=“tabpanel” aria-labelledby=“css” aria-hidden=“true”} ::: {#css-editor} form.form-example { display: table; }

div.form-example {
  display: table-row;
}

label,
input {
  display: table-cell;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

label {
  padding-right: 10px;
}

::: :::

::: {#js-panel .section .hidden tabindex=“0” role=“tabpanel” aria-labelledby=“js” aria-hidden=“true”} ::: {#js-editor} ::: ::: :::

::: {#output .output-container}

Output #

::: :::

::: {.section .console-container .hidden aria-hidden=“true”}

Console Output #

![] clear console

::: {#console .console} ::: :::

::: {#html-output .output .editor-tabbed} %html-content% ::: :::

It is possible to use the :valid and :invalid CSS pseudo-classes to style a <form> element based on whether the elements inside the form are valid. :::

Attributes #

::: section-content This element includes the global attributes.

accept [Deprecated]{.visually-hidden}

Comma-separated content types the server accepts.

::: {#sect1 .notecard .note} Note: This attribute has been deprecated and should not be used. Instead, use the accept attribute on <input type=file> elements. :::

accept-charset

Space-separated character encodings the server accepts. The browser uses them in the order in which they are listed. The default value means the same encoding as the page. (In previous versions of HTML, character encodings could also be delimited by commas.)

autocapitalize [Non-standard]{.visually-hidden}

A nonstandard attribute used by iOS Safari that controls how textual form elements should be automatically capitalized. autocapitalize attributes on a form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

• none: No automatic capitalization.
• sentences (default): Capitalize the first letter of each sentence.
• words: Capitalize the first letter of each word.
• characters: Capitalize all characters — that is, uppercase.

autocomplete

Indicates whether input elements can by default have their values automatically completed by the browser. autocomplete attributes on form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

• off: The browser may not automatically complete entries. (Browsers tend to ignore this for suspected login forms; see The autocomplete attribute and login fields.)
• on: The browser may automatically complete entries.

name

The name of the form. The value must not be the empty string, and must be unique among the form elements in the forms collection that it is in, if any.

rel

Controls the annotations and what kinds of links the form creates. Annotations include external, nofollow, opener, noopener, and noreferrer. Link types include help, prev, next, search, and license. The rel value is a space-separated list of these enumerated values. :::

Attributes for form submission #

::: section-content The following attributes control behavior during form submission.

action

The URL that processes the form submission. This value can be overridden by a formaction attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element. This attribute is ignored when method="dialog" is set.

enctype

If the value of the method attribute is post, enctype is the MIME type{target="_blank"} of the form submission. Possible values:

• application/x-www-form-urlencoded: The default value.
• multipart/form-data: Use this if the form contains <input> elements with type=file.
• text/plain: Useful for debugging purposes.

This value can be overridden by formenctype attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

method

The HTTP method to submit the form with. The only allowed methods/values are (case insensitive):

• post: The POST method; form data sent as the request body.
• get (default): The GET; form data appended to the action URL with a ? separator. Use this method when the form has no side effects.
• dialog: When the form is inside a <dialog>, closes the dialog and causes a submit event to be fired on submission, without submitting data or clearing the form.

This value is overridden by formmethod attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

novalidate

This Boolean attribute indicates that the form shouldn't be validated when submitted. If this attribute is not set (and therefore the form is validated), it can be overridden by a formnovalidate attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element belonging to the form.

target

Indicates where to display the response after submitting the form. It is a name/keyword for a browsing context (for example, tab, window, or iframe). The following keywords have special meanings:

• _self (default): Load into the same browsing context as the current one.
• _blank: Load into a new unnamed browsing context. This provides the same behavior as setting rel="noopener" which does not set window.opener.
• _parent: Load into the parent browsing context of the current one. If no parent, behaves the same as _self.
• _top: Load into the top-level browsing context (i.e., the browsing context that is an ancestor of the current one and has no parent). If no parent, behaves the same as _self.

This value can be overridden by a formtarget attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element. :::

Examples #

::: section-content ::: code-example [html]{.language-name}

<!-- Form which will send a GET request to the current URL -->
<form method="get">
  <label>
    Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name" />
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form which will send a POST request to the current URL -->
<form method="post">
  <label>
    Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name" />
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form with fieldset, legend, and label -->
<form method="post">
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Do you agree to the terms?</legend>
    <label><input type="radio" name="radio" value="yes" /> Yes</label>
    <label><input type="radio" name="radio" value="no" /> No</label>
  </fieldset>
</form>

::: :::

Result #

::: section-content ::: {#sect2 .code-example} ::: iframe ::: ::: :::

Technical summary #

::: section-content

Content categories	Flow content, palpable content
Permitted content	Flow content, but not containing <form> elements
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts flow content
Implicit ARIA role	form
Permitted ARIA roles	search, none or presentation
DOM interface	HTMLFormElement

:::

Specifications #

::: _table #

Specification #

HTML Standard
[# the-form-element]{.small}

---

:::

Browser compatibility #

::: _table #

                 Desktop                                                                    Mobile                                                                      

---

                 Chrome             Edge   Firefox   Internet   Opera              Safari   WebView Android    Chrome Android     Firefox   Opera Android      Safari   Samsung Internet
                                                     Explorer                                                                     for                          on IOS   
                                                                                                                                  Android                               

form 1 12 1 Yes 15 ≤4 4.4 18 4 14 ≤3.2 1.0

accept 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0

accept-charset 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0

action 1 12 1 Yes 15 ≤4 4.4 18 4 14 ≤3.2 1.0

autocapitalize 43 79 111 No 30 No 43 43 111 30 Yes 4.0

autocomplete 14 12 4 Yes 15 6 4.4 18 4 14 6 1.0

                 The Google Chrome                              The Opera UI for            The Google Chrome  The Google Chrome            The Opera UI for            The Samsung
                 UI for                                         auto-complete               UI for             UI for                       auto-complete               Internet UI for
                 auto-complete                                  request varies,             auto-complete      auto-complete                request varies,             auto-complete
                 request varies,                                depending on                request varies,    request varies,              depending on                request varies,
                 depending on                                   whether                     depending on       depending on                 whether                     depending on
                 whether                                        `autocomplete` is           whether            whether                      `autocomplete` is           whether
                 `autocomplete` is                              set to `off` on             `autocomplete` is  `autocomplete` is            set to `off` on             `autocomplete` is
                 set to `off` on                                `<input>` elements          set to `off` on    set to `off` on              `<input>` elements          set to `off` on
                 `<input>` elements                             as well as their            `<input>` elements `<input>` elements           as well as their            `<input>` elements
                 as well as their                               form.                       as well as their   as well as their             form.                       as well as their
                 form.                                          Specifically, when          form.              form.                        Specifically, when          form.
                 Specifically, when                             a form has                  Specifically, when Specifically, when           a form has                  Specifically, when
                 a form has                                     `autocomplete` set          a form has         a form has                   `autocomplete` set          a form has
                 `autocomplete` set                             to `off` and its            `autocomplete` set `autocomplete` set           to `off` and its            `autocomplete` set
                 to `off` and its                               `<input>`                   to `off` and its   to `off` and its             `<input>`                   to `off` and its
                 `<input>`                                      element\'s                  `<input>`          `<input>`                    element\'s                  `<input>`
                 element\'s                                     `autocomplete`              element\'s         element\'s                   `autocomplete`              element\'s
                 `autocomplete`                                 attribute is not            `autocomplete`     `autocomplete`               attribute is not            `autocomplete`
                 attribute is not                               set, then if the            attribute is not   attribute is not             set, then if the            attribute is not
                 set, then if the                               user asks for               set, then if the   set, then if the             user asks for               set, then if the
                 user asks for                                  autofill                    user asks for      user asks for                autofill                    user asks for
                 autofill                                       suggestions for             autofill           autofill                     suggestions for             autofill
                 suggestions for                                the `<input>`               suggestions for    suggestions for              the `<input>`               suggestions for
                 the `<input>`                                  element, Opera              the `<input>`      the `<input>`                element, Opera              the `<input>`
                 element, Chrome                                might display a             element, Chrome    element, Chrome              might display a             element, Samsung
                 might display a                                message saying              might display a    might display a              message saying              Internet might
                 message saying                                 \'autocomplete has          message saying     message saying               \'autocomplete has          display a message
                 \'autocomplete has                             been disabled for           \'autocomplete has \'autocomplete has           been disabled for           saying
                 been disabled for                              this form.\' On             been disabled for  been disabled for            this form.\' On             \'autocomplete has
                 this form.\' On                                the other hand, if          this form.\' On    this form.\' On              the other hand, if          been disabled for
                 the other hand, if                             both the form and           the other hand, if the other hand, if           both the form and           this form.\' On
                 both the form and                              the input element           both the form and  both the form and            the input element           the other hand, if
                 the input element                              have                        the input element  the input element            have                        both the form and
                 have                                           `autocomplete` set          have               have                         `autocomplete` set          the input element
                 `autocomplete` set                             to `off`, the               `autocomplete` set `autocomplete` set           to `off`, the               have
                 to `off`, the                                  browser will not            to `off`, the      to `off`, the                browser will not            `autocomplete` set
                 browser will not                               display that                browser will not   browser will not             display that                to `off`, the
                 display that                                   message. For this           display that       display that                 message. For this           browser will not
                 message. For this                              reason, you should          message. For this  message. For this            reason, you should          display that
                 reason, you should                             set `autocomplete`          reason, you should reason, you should           set `autocomplete`          message. For this
                 set `autocomplete`                             to `off` for each           set `autocomplete` set `autocomplete`           to `off` for each           reason, you should
                 to `off` for each                              `<input>` that has          to `off` for each  to `off` for each            `<input>` that has          set `autocomplete`
                 `<input>` that has                             custom                      `<input>` that has `<input>` that has           custom                      to `off` for each
                 custom                                         auto-completion.            custom             custom                       auto-completion.            `<input>` that has
                 auto-completion.                                                           auto-completion.   auto-completion.                                         custom
                                                                                                                                                                        auto-completion.

enctype 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0

method 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0

name 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0

novalidate 10 12 4 10 15 10.1 37 18 4 14 10.3 1.0

rel 108 108 111 No 94 15.4 108 108 111 73 15.4 21.0

target 1 12 1 Yes 15 3 4.4 18 4 14 2 1.0 #

:::

See also #

::: section-content

• HTML forms guide
• Other elements that are used when creating forms: <button>, <datalist>, <fieldset>, <input>, <label>, <legend>, <meter>, <optgroup>, <option>, <output>, <progress>, <select>, <textarea>.
• Getting a list of the elements in the form: HTMLFormElement.elements
• ARIA: Form role
• ARIA: Search role :::

::: _attribution © 2005–2023 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/form{._attribution-link} :::