Option in selection list
This element is used to create an item in a selection list element.
<option
class="class name(s)"
dir="ltr | rtl"
disabled
id="unique identifier"
label="text"
lang="language code"
selected
style="style information"
title="text"
value="text"
>
</option>
Key:
‡ = Required attribute
** = Transitional only
Explanation of attributes
class: used to state which class(es) the element belongs to. It is possible to indicate more than one class for an element by separating each class name with a space character. This attribute is normally used in combination with a stylesheet in order to associate the elements with particular styles defined within the stylesheet.
dir: used to set the direction of the text in combination with the language set in the lang attribute. The available values are "ltr" (left to right) and "rtl" (right to left), with the default value being "ltr".
disabled: this attribute is used to disable an option. This means that it cannot be selected by the user.
id: used to specify a unique alphanumeric identifier to the element. This is usually used in combination with stylesheets in order to apply a style to one particular instance of an element. Only one element, regardless of type, can be given a particular id.
label: this attribute is used to specify a short label that is associated with the option. It may be displayed by the browser in a hierarchical style.
lang: used to indicate the language being used in the text contained within the element. The value of this attribute takes on the form of the ISO standard lanuage abbreviations found in RFC 3066. A list of these codes can be found on the ISO language codes page.
selected: this attribute specifies that the option that is first displayed in the selection list should be the one in which it is found. Only one option element may contain this attribute in each selection list.
style: used to specify an inline style to apply to the element. The styles defined here override the styles declared in the header section.
title: used to define an advisory text that may be displayed as a tooltip when a mouse is used to hover over the element.
value: this attribute sets the value that should be submitted if that particular option is selected.
Event handlers
The following event handlers are defined for this element:
- onclick
- ondbclick
- onkeydown
- onkeypress
- onkeyup
- onmousedown
- onmousemove
- onmouseout
- onmouseover
- onmouseup
Basic example
<select>
<option value="Google">Google</option>
<option value="Yahoo!" selected>Yahoo!</option>
<option value="AllTheWeb">AllTheWeb</option>
</select>
The above code will display something like:
Compatibility
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| Basic element support | |
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| Attribute: class | |
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| Attribute: dir | |
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| Attribute: disabled | |
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| Attribute: id | |
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| Attribute: label | |
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| Attribute: lang | |
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| Attribute: selected | |
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| Attribute: style | |
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| Attribute: title | |
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| Attribute: value | |
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Key:
The browser icons are explained in the below list:
= Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+
= Netscape Communicator 4
= Mozilla and Netscape Navigator 6+
= Opera 7+
= MSN TV (aka. WebTV)
= Konqueror 3.0+