HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

Multiple-Choice Elements

Checkboxes and radio buttons give you powerful means for creating multiple-choice questions and answers, but they can lead to long forms that are tedious to write and put a fair amount of clutter onscreen. The <select> tag gives you two compact alternatives: pull-down menus and scrolling lists.

The <select> Tag

By placing a list of <option>-tagged items inside the <select> tag of a form, you magically create a pull-down menu of choices. Figure 9-2, earlier in this chapter, displays a <select> pull-down menu.

<select>

Function	Creates single- and multiple-choice menus
Attributes	class, dir, disabled, id, lang, multiple, name, notab ‼, onBlur, onChange, onClick, onDblClick, onFocus, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, size, style, tabindex, taborder ‼, title
End tag	</select>; never omitted
Contains	select_content
Used in	form_content

As with other form tags, the name attribute is required and used by the browser when submitting the <select> choices to the server. Unlike with radio buttons, no item is preselected, so if the user doesn't select one, the browser doesn't send any value to the server with the submitted form.

Otherwise, the browser submits the selected item with the name attribute value when submitting <select> form data to the server.

The multiple attribute

To allow more than one option selection at a time, add the multiple attribute to the <select> tag. This causes the <select> element ...