Availability

JavaScript 1.0; enhanced in JavaScript 1.1

Inherits from/Overrides

Inherits from Input, HTMLElement

Synopsis

form.name
form.elements[i]

Properties

Text inherits properties from Input and HTMLElement and defines or overrides the following:

value

A read/write string that specifies the text displayed in the text input field. This text may have been entered by the user, or it may be a default value specified by the document or by a script. The initial value of this property is specified by the value attribute of the <input> tag that defines the Text object. When the user types characters into the Text object, the value property is updated to match the user's input. If you set the value property explicitly, the string you specify is displayed in the Text object. This property also specifies the string that is sent to the server when the form is submitted.

Methods

Text inherits the methods of Input and HTMLElement.

Event Handlers

Text inherits the event handlers of Input and HTMLElement and defines or overrides the following:

onchange

Invoked when the user changes the value in the Text element and moves the keyboard focus elsewhere. This event handler is not invoked for every keystroke in the Text element, but only when the user completes an edit.

HTML Syntax

A Text element is created with a standard HTML <input> tag:

<form>
    ...
  <input
    type="text"              // Specifies that this is a Text element
    [ name="name" ]          // A name you can use later to refer to this element
                             // Specifies the name property
    [ value="default" ]      // Default value transmitted when the form is submitted
                             // Specifies the defaultValue property
    [ size="integer" ]       // How many characters wide the element is
    [ maxlength="integer" ]  // Maximum allowed number of input characters
    [ onchange="handler" ]   // The onchange(  ) event handler
  >
    ...
</form>

Description

The Text element represents a text input field in a form. The size attribute specifies the width, in characters, of the input field as it appears on the screen, and the maxlength attribute specifies the maximum number of characters the user is allowed to enter.

Besides these HTML attributes, value is the main property of interest for the Text element. You can read this property to obtain the user's input or set it to display arbitrary (unformatted) text in the input field.

Usage

Use the Password element instead of the Text element when the value you are asking the user to enter is sensitive information, such as a password that should not be displayed openly on the screen. Use a Textarea element to allow the user to enter multiple lines of text.

When a form contains only one Text or Password element, the form is automatically submitted if the user strikes the Return key in that Text or Password element. In many forms, this is a useful shortcut. In some, however, it can be confusing if the user strikes Return and submits the form before entering input into other form elements, such as Checkboxes and Radio buttons. You can sometimes minimize this confusion by placing Text elements with their default submission action at the bottom of the form.

See Also

Form, Input, Password, Textarea; HTMLInputElement in the DOM reference section