[Chapter 21] Reference: Element.value
Author: David Flanagan
Date: Fri Aug 29 11:15:43 1997

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| Chapter 21 JavaScript Reference |

# Element.value Property

## Name

Element.value Property---value displayed or submitted by a form element

## Availability

Navigator 2.0, buggy in Internet Explorer 3.0

## Synopsis

    element.value

## Description

`value` is a read/write string property of all form elements. It specifies the value that is displayed by the form element and/or submitted for the element when the form is submitted. The `value` property of the Text element, for example, is the user's input, which is also the value submitted with the form. For the Checkbox object, on the other hand, the `value` property specifies a string that is not displayed, but which will be submitted with the form if the Checkbox element is checked when the form is submitted.

The initial value of the `value` property is specified by the `VALUE` attribute of the HTML tag that defines the form element.

For Button, Submit, and Reset objects, the `value` property specifies the text to appear within the button. On some platforms, changing the `value` property of these elements will actually change the text displayed by the buttons on-screen. This does not work on all platforms, however, and is not an advisable technique because changing the label of a button may change the size of the button, and cause it to overlap and obscure other portions of the document.

The Select element has a `value` property, like all form elements, but does not use it. Instead, the value submitted by this element is specified by the `value` property of the Option objects it contains.

In Navigator 2.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0, the `value` property of the Password object is nonfunctional for security purposes. It can be read and written, but this has no bearing on the value entered by the user, or submitted with the form. In Navigator 3.0, when the data-tainting security model is enabled, the `value` property does actually contain the user's input to this element.

A limitation of Internet Explorer 3.0 only allows strings to be assigned to the `value` property of HTML form elements. If you want to assign objects to this property, you must explicitly convert them to strings by, for example, adding the empty string to them. Thus, to display the current date and time in a text field, Internet Explorer would require code like this:

    var today = new Date();
    document.forms[0].elements[1].value = "" + today;

## Bugs

Internet Explorer 3.0 does not automatically convert objects to strings when they are assigned to this property; you must explicitly perform that conversion yourself.

## See Also

"Element", "Element.name"

Element.type |  | Embed