HTML5 Input Types

HTML5 New Input Types

HTML5 has several new input types for forms. These new features allow for better input control and validation.
This chapter covers the new input types:

• email
• url
• number
• range
• Date pickers (date, month, week, time, datetime, datetime-local)
• search
• color

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Browser Support

Input type	IE	Firefox	Opera	Chrome	Safari
email	No	4.0	9.0	10.0	No
url	No	4.0	9.0	10.0	No
number	No	No	9.0	7.0	5.1
range	No	No	9.0	4.0	4.0
Date pickers	No	No	9.0	10.0	5.1
search	No	4.0	11.0	10.0	No
color	No	No	11.0	12	No

Note: Opera has the best support for the new input types. However, you can already start using them in all major browsers. If they are not supported, they will behave as regular text fields.

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Input Type - email

The email type is used for input fields that should contain an e-mail address.
The value of the email field is automatically validated when the form is submitted.

Example

E-mail: <input type="email" name="user_email" />

Try it yourself »

Tip: Safari on the iPhone recognizes the email input type, and changes the on-screen keyboard to match it (adds @ and .com options).

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Input Type - url

The url type is used for input fields that should contain a URL address.
The value of the url field is automatically validated when the form is submitted.

Example

Homepage: <input type="url" name="user_url" />

Try it yourself »

Tip: Safari on the iPhone recognizes the url input type, and changes the on-screen keyboard to match it (adds .com option).

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Input Type - number

The number type is used for input fields that should contain a numeric value.
You can also set restrictions on what numbers are accepted:

Example

Points: <input type="number" name="points" min="1" max="10" />

Try it yourself »

Use the following attributes to specify restrictions for the number type:

Attribute	Value	Description
max	number	Specifies the maximum value allowed
min	number	Specifies the minimum value allowed
step	number	Specifies legal number intervals (if step="3", legal numbers could be -3,0,3,6, etc)
value	number	Specifies the default value

Try an example with all the restriction attributes: Try it yourself

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Input Type - range

The range type is used for input fields that should contain a value from a range of numbers.
The range type is displayed as a slider bar.
You can also set restrictions on what numbers are accepted:

Example

<input type="range" name="points" min="1" max="10" />

Try it yourself »

Use the following attributes to specify restrictions for the range type:

Attribute	Value	Description
max	number	Specifies the maximum value allowed
min	number	Specifies the minimum value allowed
step	number	Specifies legal number intervals (if step="3", legal numbers could be -3,0,3,6, etc)
value	number	Specifies the default value

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Input Type - Date Pickers

HTML5 has several new input types for selecting date and time:

• date - Selects date, month and year
• month - Selects month and year
• week - Selects week and year
• time - Selects time (hour and minute)
• datetime - Selects time, date, month and year (UTC time)
• datetime-local - Selects time, date, month and year (local time)

The following example allows you to select a date from a calendar:

Example

Date: <input type="date" name="user_date" />

Try it yourself »

Input type "month": Try it yourself
Input type "week": Try it yourself
Input type "time": Try it yourself
Input type "datetime": Try it yourself
Input type "datetime-local": Try it yourself

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Input Type - search

The search type is used for search fields, like a site search, or Google search.
The search field behaves like a regular text field.

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Input Type - color

The color type is used for input fields that should contain a color.
The Opera browser will allow you to select a color from a color picker, Google's Chrome will only allow hexadecimal color values to be submitted:

Example

Color: <input type="color" name="user_color" />

Try it yourself »

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HTML5 <input> Tag

Tag	Description
<input>	Defines an input field