← 4.10.7.1 States of the type attributeTable of contents4.10.7.2 Common input element attributes →
          1. 4.10.7.1.13 Number state
          2. 4.10.7.1.14 Range state
          3. 4.10.7.1.15 Color state
          4. 4.10.7.1.16 Checkbox state
          5. 4.10.7.1.17 Radio Button state
          6. 4.10.7.1.18 File Upload state
          7. 4.10.7.1.19 Submit Button state
          8. 4.10.7.1.20 Image Button state
          9. 4.10.7.1.21 Reset Button state
          10. 4.10.7.1.22 Button state
4.10.7.1.13 Number state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Number state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a number.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid floating point number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the value must be set to the best representation of the number representing the user's selection as a floating point number. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating point number, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers, unless the min attribute has a non-integer value).

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch. If there are two such numbers, user agents are encouraged to pick the one nearest positive infinity.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the resulting number.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid floating point number that represents input.

The following common input element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption IDL attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The value IDL attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, maxlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, size, src, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart, selectionEnd, and valueAsDate IDL attributes; select() and setSelectionRange() methods.

4.10.7.1.14 Range state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Range state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a number, but with the caveat that the exact value is not important, letting UAs provide a simpler interface than they do for the Number state.

In this state, the range and step constraints are enforced even during user input, and there is no way to set the value to the empty string.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid floating point number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the value must be set to a best representation of the number representing the user's selection as a floating point number. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating point number, then set it to a valid floating point number that represents the default value.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The default minimum is 0. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The default maximum is 100.

The default value is the minimum plus half the difference between the minimum and the maximum, unless the maximum is less than the minimum, in which case the default value is the minimum.

When the element is suffering from an underflow, the user agent must set the element's value to a valid floating point number that represents the minimum.

When the element is suffering from an overflow, if the maximum is not less than the minimum, the user agent must set the element's value to a valid floating point number that represents the maximum.

The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers, unless the min attribute has a non-integer value).

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent must round the element's value to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch, and which is greater than or equal to the minimum, and, if the maximum is not less than the minimum, which is less than or equal to the maximum. If two numbers match these constraints, then user agents must use the one nearest to positive infinity.

For example, the markup <input type="range" min=0 max=100 step=20 value=50> results in a range control whose initial value is 60.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the resulting number.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid floating point number that represents input.

The following common input element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption IDL attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The value IDL attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, maxlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart, selectionEnd, and valueAsDate IDL attributes; select() and setSelectionRange() methods.

Here is an example of a range control using an autocomplete list with the list attribute. This could be useful if there are values along the full range of the control that are especially important, such as preconfigured light levels or typical speed limits in a range control used as a speed control. The following markup fragment:

<input type="range" min="-100" max="100" value="0" step="10" name="power" list="powers">
<datalist id="powers">
 <option value="0">
 <option value="-30">
 <option value="30">
 <option value="+50">
</datalist>

...with the following style sheet applied:

input { height: 75px; width: 49px; background: #D5CCBB; color: black; }

...might render as:

A vertical slider control whose primary color is black and whose background color is beige, with the slider having five tick marks, one long one at each extremity, and three short ones clustered around the midpoint.

Note how the UA determined the orientation of the control from the ratio of the style-sheet-specified height and width properties. The colors were similiarly derived from the style sheet. The tick marks, however, were derived from the markup. In particular, the step attribute has not affected the placement of tick marks, the UA deciding to only use the author-specified completion values and then adding longer tick marks at the extremes.

Note also how the invalid value +50 was completely ignored.

For another example, consider the following markup fragment:

<input name=x type=range min=100 max=700 step=9.09090909 value=509.090909>

A user agent could display in a variety of ways, for instance:

As a dial.

Or, alternatively, for instance:

As a long horizontal slider with tick marks.

The user agent could pick which one to display based on the dimensions given in the style sheet. This would allow it to maintain the same resolution for the tick marks, despite the differences in width.

4.10.7.1.15 Color state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Color state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a color well control, for setting the element's value to a string representing a simple color.

In this state, there is always a color picked, and there is no way to set the value to the empty string.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the color represented by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing simple color values to it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid lowercase simple color. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a color, then the value must be set to the result of using the rules for serializing simple color values to the user's selection. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid simple color.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is a valid simple color, then set it to the value of the element converted to ASCII lowercase; otherwise, set it to the string "#000000".

The following common input element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete and list content attributes; list, value, and selectedOption IDL attributes.

The value IDL attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, maxlength, max, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

4.10.7.1.16 Checkbox state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Checkbox state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a two-state control that represents the element's checkedness state. If the element's checkedness state is true, the control represents a positive selection, and if it is false, a negative selection. If the element's indeterminate IDL attribute is set to true, then the control's selection should be obscured as if the control was in a third, indeterminate, state.

The control is never a true tri-state control, even if the element's indeterminate IDL attribute is set to true. The indeterminate IDL attribute only gives the appearance of a third state.

If the element is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to its opposite value (i.e. true if it is false, false if it is true), and of setting the element's indeterminate IDL attribute to false. The canceled activation steps consist of setting the checkedness and the element's indeterminate IDL attribute back to the values they had before the pre-click activation steps were run. The activation behavior is to fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the element, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and its checkedness is false, then the element is suffering from being missing.

input . indeterminate [ = value ]

When set, overrides the rendering of checkbox controls so that the current value is not visible.

The following common input element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: checked, and required content attributes; checked and value IDL attributes.

The value IDL attribute is in mode default/on.

The change event applies.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.7.1.17 Radio Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Radio Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control that, when used in conjunction with other input elements, forms a radio button group in which only one control can have its checkedness state set to true. If the element's checkedness state is true, the control represents the selected control in the group, and if it is false, it indicates a control in the group that is not selected.

The radio button group that contains an input element a also contains all the other input elements b that fulfill all of the following conditions:

A document must not contain an input element whose radio button group contains only that element.

When any of the following phenomena occur, if the element's checkedness state is true after the occurrence, the checkedness state of all the other elements in the same radio button group must be set to false:

If the element is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to true. The canceled activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to false. The activation behavior is to fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the element, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and all of the input elements in the radio button group have a checkedness that is false, then the element is suffering from being missing.

If none of the radio buttons in a radio button group are checked when they are inserted into the document, then they will all be initially unchecked in the interface, until such time as one of them is checked (either by the user or by script).

The following common input element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: checked and required content attributes; checked and value IDL attributes.

The value IDL attribute is in mode default/on.

The change event applies.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.7.1.18 File Upload state

When an input element's type attribute is in the File Upload state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a list of selected files, each file consisting of a file name, a file type, and a file body (the contents of the file).

File names may contain partial paths, e.g. in the case that a user has selected an entire directory hierarchy. Path components should be separated from each other using U+005C REVERSE SOLIDUS character (\).

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the files on the list, e.g. adding or removing files. Files can be from the filesystem or created on the fly, e.g. a picture taken from a camera connected to the user's device.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and the list of selected files is empty, then the element is suffering from being missing.

Unless the multiple attribute is set, there must be no more than one file in the list of selected files.


The accept attribute may be specified to provide user agents with a hint of what file types will be accepted.

If specified, the attribute must consist of a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following:

The string audio/*
Indicates that sound files are accepted.
The string video/*
Indicates that video files are accepted.
The string image/*
Indicates that image files are accepted.
A valid MIME type with no parameters
Indicates that files of the specified type are accepted.

The tokens must not be ASCII case-insensitive matches for any of the other tokens (i.e. duplicates are not allowed). To obtain the list of tokens from the attribute, the user agent must split the attribute value on commas.

User agents should prevent the user from selecting files that are not accepted by one (or more) of these tokens.

For historical reasons, the value IDL attribute prefixes the filename with the string "C:\fakepath\". Some legacy user agents actually included the full path (which was a security vulnerability). As a result of this, obtaining the filename from the value IDL attribute in a backwards-compatible way is non-trivial. The following function extracts the filename in a suitably compatible manner:

function extractFilename(path) {
  var x;
  x = path.lastIndexOf('\\');
  if (x >= 0) // Windows-based path
    return path.substr(x+1);
  x = path.lastIndexOf('/');
  if (x >= 0) // Unix-based path
    return path.substr(x+1);
  return path; // just the filename
}

This can be used as follows:

<p><input type=file name=image onchange="updateFilename(this.value)"></p>
<p>The name of the file you picked is: <span id="filename">(none)</span></p>
<script>
 function updateFilename(path) {
   var name = extractFilename(path);
   document.getElementById('filename').textContent = name;
 }
</script>

The following common input element content attributes apply to the element:

The following common input element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: accept, multiple, and required; files and value IDL attributes.

The value IDL attribute is in mode filename.

The change event applies.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: alt, autocomplete, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, list, max, maxlength, min, pattern, placeholder, readonly, size, src, step, and width.

The element's value attribute must be omitted.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.7.1.19 Submit Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Submit Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button that, when activated, submits the form. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an implementation-defined string that means "Submit" or some such. The element is a button, specifically a submit button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element.

The element's activation behavior, if the element has a form owner, is to submit the form owner from the input element; otherwise, it is to do nothing.

The formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget attributes are attributes for form submission.

The formnovalidate attribute can be used to make submit buttons that do not trigger the constraint validation.

The following common input element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget content attributes; value IDL attribute.

The value IDL attribute is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, checked, height, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.7.1.20 Image Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Image Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents either an image from which a user can select a coordinate and submit the form, or alternatively a button from which the user can submit the form. The element is a button, specifically a submit button.


The image is given by the src attribute. The src attribute must be present, and must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces referencing a non-interactive, optionally animated, image resource that is neither paged nor scripted.

When any of the following events occur, unless the user agent cannot support images, or its support for images has been disabled, or the user agent only fetches elements on demand, or the src attribute's value is the empty string, the user agent must resolve the value of the src attribute, relative to the element, and if that is successful, must fetch the resulting absolute URL:

Fetching the image must delay the load event of the element's document until the task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched (defined below) has been run.

If the image was successfully obtained, with no network errors, and the image's type is a supported image type, and the image is a valid image of that type, then the image is said to be available. If this is true before the image is completely downloaded, each task that is queued by the networking task source while the image is being fetched must update the presentation of the image appropriately.

The user agents should apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image, with the image's associated Content-Type headers giving the official type. If these rules are not applied, then the type of the image must be the type given by the image's associated Content-Type headers.

User agents must not support non-image resources with the input element. User agents must not run executable code embedded in the image resource. User agents must only display the first page of a multipage resource. User agents must not allow the resource to act in an interactive fashion, but should honor any animation in the resource.

The task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched, must, if the download was successful and the image is available, queue a task to fire a simple event named load at the input element; and otherwise, if the fetching process fails without a response from the remote server, or completes but the image is not a valid or supported image, queue a task to fire a simple event named error on the input element.


The alt attribute provides the textual label for the alternative button for users and user agents who cannot use the image. The alt attribute must also be present, and must contain a non-empty string.

The input element supports dimension attributes.


If the src attribute is set, and the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then: The element represents a control for selecting a coordinate from the image specified by the src attribute; if the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to select this coordinate. The activation behavior in this case consists of taking the user's selected coordinate, and then, if the element has a form owner, submitting the input element's form owner from the input element. If the user activates the control without explicitly selecting a coordinate, then the coordinate (0,0) must be assumed.

Otherwise, the element represents a submit button whose label is given by the value of the alt attribute; if the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the button. The activation behavior in this case consists of setting the selected coordinate to (0,0), and then, if the element has a form owner, submitting the input element's form owner from the input element.

The selected coordinate must consist of an x-component and a y-component. The coordinates represent the position relative to the edge of the image, with the coordinate space having the positive x direction to the right, and the positive y direction downwards.

The x-component must be a valid integer representing a number x in the range −(borderleft+paddingleft) ≤ xwidth+borderright+paddingright, where width is the rendered width of the image, borderleft is the width of the border on the left of the image, paddingleft is the width of the padding on the left of the image, borderright is the width of the border on the right of the image, and paddingright is the width of the padding on the right of the image, with all dimensions given in CSS pixels.

The y-component must be a valid integer representing a number y in the range −(bordertop+paddingtop) ≤ yheight+borderbottom+paddingbottom, where height is the rendered height of the image, bordertop is the width of the border above the image, paddingtop is the width of the padding above the image, borderbottom is the width of the border below the image, and paddingbottom is the width of the padding below the image, with all dimensions given in CSS pixels.

Where a border or padding is missing, its width is zero CSS pixels.


The formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget attributes are attributes for form submission.

The following common input element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: alt, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, src, and width content attributes; value IDL attribute.

The value IDL attribute is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, autocomplete, checked, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, and step.

The element's value attribute must be omitted.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

Many aspects of this state's behavior are similar to the behavior of the img element. Readers are encouraged to read that section, where many of the same requirements are described in more detail.

4.10.7.1.21 Reset Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Reset Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button that, when activated, resets the form. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an implementation-defined string that means "Reset" or some such. The element is a button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element.

The element's activation behavior, if the element has a form owner, is to reset the form owner; otherwise, it is to do nothing.

Constraint validation: The element is barred from constraint validation.

The value IDL attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.7.1.22 Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button with no default behavior. A label for the button must be provided in the value attribute. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be the empty string. The element is a button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element. The element's activation behavior is to do nothing.

Constraint validation: The element is barred from constraint validation.

The value IDL attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, checked, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, list, max, maxlength, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, step, and width.

The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list, selectedOption, selectionStart, selectionEnd, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.