<datalist>: The HTML Data List element
Limited availability
This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.
The<datalist>HTML element contains a set of<option> elements that represent the permissible or recommended options available to choose from within other controls.
Try it
<label for="ice-cream-choice">Choose a flavor:</label><input list="ice-cream-flavors" name="ice-cream-choice" /><datalist> <option value="Chocolate"></option> <option value="Coconut"></option> <option value="Mint"></option> <option value="Strawberry"></option> <option value="Vanilla"></option></datalist>label { display: block; margin-bottom: 10px;}To bind the<datalist> element to the control, we give it a unique identifier in theid attribute, and then add thelist attribute to the<input> element with the same identifier as value.Only certain types of<input> support this behavior, and it can also vary from browser to browser.
Each<option> element should have avalue attribute, which represents a suggestion to be entered into the input. It can also have alabel attribute, or, missing that, some text content, which may be displayed by the browser instead ofvalue (Firefox), or in addition tovalue (Chrome and Safari, as supplemental text). The exact content of the drop-down menu depends on the browser, but when clicked, content entered into control field will always come from thevalue attribute.
Note:<datalist> is not a replacement for<select>. A<datalist> does not represent an input itself; it is a list of suggested values for an associated control. The control can still accept any value that passes validation, even if it is not in this suggestion list.
Attributes
This element has no other attributes than theglobal attributes, common to all elements.
Accessibility
When deciding to use the<datalist> element, here are some accessibility issues to be mindful of:
- The font size of the data list's options does not zoom, always remaining the same size. The contents of the autosuggest do not grow or shrink when the rest of the contents are zoomed in or out.
- As targeting the list of options with CSS is very limited to non-existent, rendering can not be styled for high-contrast mode.
- Some screen reader/browser combinations, including NVDA and Firefox, do not announce the contents of the autosuggest popup.
Examples
Textual types
Recommended values in typestext,search,url,tel,email andnumber, are displayed in a drop-down menu when user clicks or double-clicks on the control.Typically the right side of a control will also have an arrow pointing to the presence of predefined values.
<label for="myBrowser">Choose a browser from this list:</label><input list="browsers" name="myBrowser" /><datalist> <option value="Chrome"></option> <option value="Firefox"></option> <option value="Opera"></option> <option value="Safari"></option> <option value="Microsoft Edge"></option></datalist>Date and Time types
The typesmonth,week,date,time anddatetime-local can show an interface that allows a convenient selection of a date and time.Predefined values can be shown there, allowing the user to quickly fill the control value.
Note:When these types are not supported, a basictext type will be rendered instead, creating a text field. That field will correctly recognize recommended values and display them to the user in a drop-down menu.
<input type="time" list="popularHours" /><datalist> <option value="12:00"></option> <option value="13:00"></option> <option value="14:00"></option></datalist>Range type
Whenvalue attributes are included on<option> elements provided for a datalist associated with arange input type, they will be shown as a series of tick marks that the user can easily select.
<label for="tick">Tip amount:</label><input type="range" list="tickmarks" min="0" max="100" name="tick" /><datalist> <option value="0" label="0%"></option> <option value="10" label="Minimum Tip"></option> <option value="20" label="Standard"></option> <option value="30" label="Generous"></option> <option value="50" label="Very Generous"></option></datalist>Note:Thelabel attribute is intended to provide labels for tick marks, as defined in theHTML Standard. However, current browser support varies; labels might not be displayed visually or as tooltips.
Color type
Thecolor type can show predefined colors in a browser-provided interface.
<label for="colors">Pick a color (preferably a red tone):</label><input type="color" list="redColors" /><datalist> <option value="#800000"></option> <option value="#8B0000"></option> <option value="#A52A2A"></option> <option value="#DC143C"></option></datalist>Technical summary
| Content categories | Flow content,phrasing content. |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | Eitherphrasing content or zero or more<option> elements. |
| Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
| Permitted parents | Any element that acceptsphrasing content. |
| Implicit ARIA role | listbox |
| Permitted ARIA roles | Norole permitted |
| DOM interface | HTMLDataListElement |
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| HTML # the-datalist-element |