HTML <option> Tag

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The <option> tag defines items in a drop-down list, defined by the <select> tag, or the items of the data list for autocomplete, defined by the <datalist> tag. The <option> tag can be used as a child element of the <select> tag, <datalist> tag or <optgroup> tag, which groups the list elements.

The <select> tag is placed in the <form> tag, if the data lists must be sent to the server, or when the data list is accessed via scripts.

Syntax

The <option> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<option>) and closing (</option>) tags.

The <option> tag is generally used with the value attribute to specify which value should be sent to the server for the further processing.

Example of the HTML <option> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form>
      <select>
        <option value="computers">Computer</option>
        <option value="notebook">Notebook</option>
        <option value="tablet">Tablet</option>
      </select>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Example of the HTML <option> tag with the <datalist> tag.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Departure airport:</p>
    <form action="action_form.php" method="get">
      <input type="text" list="airports" name="airports">
      <datalist id="airports">
        <option value="Birmingham">
        <option value="Cambridge">
        <option value="Oxford">
        <option value="Bangor">
      </datalist>
      <input type="submit" value="confirm">
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

In this example the <option> tag is inserted in the <datalist> tag.

Result

Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
disabled	disabled	Indicates that the element selection is disabled.
label	text	Defines a name for a list item.
selected	selected	Sets, that the option must be selected by default when the page is being loaded.
value	text	Defines the value, which is sent to the server.