Tag <form> HTML Reference


An HTML form with two input fields and one submit button:

<form action="form_action.php" method="get">
  First name: <input type="text" name="firstname" /><br />
  Last name: <input type="text" name="lastname" /><br />

Browser Support

Internet Explorer Firefox Opera Google Chrome Safari

1. Definition and Usage

The <form> tag is used to create an HTML form for user input.

The <form> element can contain one or more of the following form elements:

An HTML form is used to pass data to a server.

Tip: The <form> element is a block-level element, and browsers create a line break before and after a form.

2. Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

HTML5 has added two new attributes: autocomplete and novalidate, and removed the accept attribute.

3. Differences Between HTML and XHTML

In XHTML, the name attribute is deprecated. Use the global id attribute instead.

4. Required Attributes


actionURLSpecifies where to send the form-data when a form is submittedSTF

5. Optional Attributes

acceptMIME_typeSpecifies the types of files that the server accepts (that can be submitted through a file upload)STF
accept-charsetcharacter_setSpecifies a list of character encodings that the server acceptsSTF
Specifies how the form-data should be encoded when submitting it to the server (only for method="post")STF
Specifies the HTTP method to use when sending form-dataSTF
namenameSpecifies the name of a formTF
Deprecated. Specifies where to display the response that is received after submitting the formTF

6. Standard Attributes

The <form> tag supports the Standard Attributes in HTML.

7. Event Attributes

The <form> tag also supports the Standard Event Attributes in HTML.

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