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HTML Form

The <form> Element

The HTML <form> element defines a form that is used to collect user input:

<form>

form elements
.
</form>

An HTML form contains form elements.

Form elements are different types of input elements, like text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, submit buttons, and more.

The <input> Element

The <input> element is the most important form element.

The <input> element can be displayed in several ways, depending on the type attribute.

Here are some examples:

Type	Description
<input type="text">	Defines a one-line text input field
<input type="radio">	Defines a radio button (for selecting one of many choices)
<input type="submit">	Defines a submit button (for submitting the form)

Text Input

<input type="text"> defines a one-line input field for text input:

See this example:

<form>
First name:<br>
<input type="text" name="firstname"><br>
Last name:<br>
<input type="text" name="lastname">
</form>

Output:

First name:

Last name:

Note: The form itself is not visible. Also note that the default width of a text field is 20 characters.

Radio Button Input

<input type="radio"> defines a radio button.

Radio buttons let a user select ONE of a limited number of choices:

See this example:

<form>
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male<br>
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female<br>
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="other"> Other
</form>

Output:

Male
Female
Other

The Submit Button

<input type="submit"> defines a button for submitting the form data to a form-handler.

The form-handler is typically a server page with a script for processing input data.

The form-handler is specified in the form's action attribute:

See this example:

<form action="/action_page.php">
First name:<br>
<input type="text" name="firstname" value="Index"><br>
Last name:<br>
<input type="text" name="lastname" value="Solutions"><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Output:

The Action Attribute

The action attribute defines the action to be performed when the form is submitted.

Normally, the form data is sent to a web page on the server when the user clicks on the submit button.

If the action attribute is omitted, the action is set to the current page.

The Method Attribute

The method attribute specifies the HTTP method (GET or POST) to be used when submitting the form data:

or:

When to Use GET?

The default method when submitting form data is GET.

However, when GET is used, the submitted form data will be visible in the page address field:

/action_page.php?firstname=Mickey&lastname=Mouse

Note: GET must NOT be used when sending sensitive information! GET is best suited for short, non-sensitive, amounts of data, because it has size limitations too.

When to Use POST?

Always use POST if the form data contains sensitive or personal information. The POST method does not display the submitted form data in the page address field.

POST has no size limitations, and can be used to send large amounts of data.

The Name Attribute

Each input field must have a name attribute to be submitted.

If the name attribute is omitted, the data of that input field will not be sent at all.

This example will only submit the "Last name" input field:

See this example:

<form action="/action_page.php">
First name:<br>
<input type="text" value="Mickey"><br>
Last name:<br>
<input type="text" name="lastname" value="Mouse"><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Grouping Form Data with <fieldset>

The <fieldset> element is used to group related data in a form.

The <legend> element defines a caption for the <fieldset> element.

See this example:

<form action="/action_page.php">
<fieldset>
    <legend>Personal information:</legend>
    First name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="firstname" value="Mickey"><br>
    Last name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="lastname" value="Mouse"><br><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</fieldset>
</form>

Output: