Revision 1015707 of <option>

<div>{{HTMLRef}}</div>

<p>In a Web form, the <strong>HTML<em> </em><code>&lt;option&gt;</code><em> </em>element</strong> is used to create a control representing an item within a {{HTMLElement("select")}}, an {{HTMLElement("optgroup")}} or a {{HTMLElement("datalist")}} HTML5 element.</p>

<table class="properties">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row"><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Content_categories">Content categories</a></th>
   <td>None.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Permitted content</th>
   <td>Text with eventually escaped characters (like <code>&amp;eacute;</code>).</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Tag omission</th>
   <td>The start tag is mandatory. The end tag is optional if this element is immediately followed by another <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> element or an {{HTMLElement("optgroup")}}, or if the parent element has no more content.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Permitted parent elements</th>
   <td>A {{HTMLElement("select")}}, an {{HTMLElement("optgroup")}} or a {{HTMLElement("datalist")}} element.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">DOM interface</th>
   <td>{{domxref("HTMLOptionElement")}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Attributes">Attributes</h2>

<p>This element includes the <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes">global attributes</a>.</p>

<dl>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("disabled")}}</dt>
 <dd>If this Boolean attribute is set, this option is not checkable. Often browsers grey out such control and it won't receive any browsing event, like mouse clicks or focus-related ones. If this attribute is not set, the element can still be disabled if one its ancestors is a disabled {{HTMLElement("optgroup")}} element.</dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("label")}}</dt>
 <dd>This attribute is text for the label indicating the meaning of the option. If the <code>label</code> attribute isn't defined, its value is that of the element text content.
 <div class="note"><em>Usage note: </em>the <code><strong>label</strong></code> attribute is designed to contain a short label typically used in a hierarchical menu. The <strong><code>value</code></strong> attribute describes a longer label designed to be used near a radio button, for example.</div>
 </dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("selected")}}</dt>
 <dd>If present, this Boolean attribute indicates that the option is initially selected. If the <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> element is the descendant of a {{HTMLElement("select")}} element whose {{htmlattrxref("multiple", "select")}} attribute is not set, only one single <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> of this {{HTMLElement("select")}} element may have the <code>selected</code> attribute.</dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("value")}}</dt>
 <dd>The content of this attribute represents the value to be submitted with the form, should this option be selected.&nbsp;If this attribute is omitted, the value is taken from the text content of the option element.</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2>

<p>See {{HTMLElement("select")}} for examples.</p>

<h2 id="Specifications">Specifications</h2>

<table class="standard-table">
 <thead>
  <tr>
   <th scope="col">Specification</th>
   <th scope="col">Status</th>
   <th scope="col">Comment</th>
  </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML WHATWG', 'the-button-element.html#the-option-element', '&lt;option&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML WHATWG')}}</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML5 W3C', 'forms.html#the-option-element', '&lt;option&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML5 W3C')}}</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML4.01', 'interact/forms.html#h-17.6', '&lt;option&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML4.01')}}</td>
   <td>Initial definition</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>

<p>{{CompatibilityTable}}</p>

<div id="compat-desktop">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Chrome</th>
   <th>Firefox (Gecko)</th>
   <th>Internet Explorer</th>
   <th>Opera</th>
   <th>Safari (WebKit)</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Basic support</td>
   <td>1.0</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoDesktop("1.0")}}<sup>[1][2]</sup></td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div id="compat-mobile">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Android</th>
   <th>Firefox Mobile (Gecko)</th>
   <th>IE Phone</th>
   <th>Opera Mobile</th>
   <th>Safari Mobile</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Basic support</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoMobile("1.0")}}<sup>[1]</sup></td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<p>[1] Gecko doesn't display the value of the <code>label</code> attribute as option text if element's content is empty. See {{bug("1205213")}}.</p>

<p>[2] Historically, Firefox has allowed keyboard and mouse events to bubble up from the <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> element to the parent {{HTMLElement("select")}} element. This doesn't happen in Chrome, however, although this behavior is inconsistent across many browsers. For better Web compatibility (and for technical reasons), when Firefox is in multi-process mode and the <code>&lt;select&gt;</code> element is displayed as a drop-down list. The behavior is unchanged if the <code>&lt;select&gt;</code> is presented inline and it has either the <code>multiple</code> attribute defined or a <code>size</code> attribute set to more than 1. Rather than watching <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> elements for events, you should watch for {event("change")}} events on {{HTMLElement("select")}}. See {{bug(1090602)}} for details.</p>

<h2 id="See_also">See also</h2>

<ul>
 <li>Other form-related elements: {{HTMLElement("form")}}, {{HTMLElement("legend")}}, {{HTMLElement("label")}}, {{HTMLElement("button")}}, {{HTMLElement("select")}}, {{HTMLElement("datalist")}}, {{HTMLElement("optgroup")}}, {{HTMLElement("fieldset")}}, {{HTMLElement("textarea")}}, {{HTMLElement("keygen")}}, {{HTMLElement("input")}}, {{HTMLElement("output")}}, {{HTMLElement("progress")}} and {{HTMLElement("meter")}}.</li>
</ul>