JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

Input.name — the name of a form element

Availability

JavaScript 1.0

Synopsis

                  input.name

Description

name is a read-only string property of every form element. The value of this property is set by the name attributes of the HTML <input> tag that defines the form element.

The name of a form element is used for two purposes. First, it is used when the form is submitted. Data for each element in the form is usually submitted in the format:

                  name=value

where name and value are encoded as necessary for transmission. If a name is not specified for a form element, the data for that element cannot be submitted to a web server.

The second use of the name property is to refer to a form element in JavaScript code. The name of an element becomes a property of the form that contains the element. The value of this property is a reference to the element. For example, if address is a form that contains a text input element with the name zip, address.zip refers to that text input element.

With Radio and Checkbox form elements, it is common to define more than one related object, each of which have the same name property. In this case, data is submitted to the server with this format:

                  name=value1,value2,...,valuen

Similarly, in JavaScript, each of the elements that shares a name becomes an element of an array with that name. Thus, if four Checkbox objects in the form order share the name options, they are available in JavaScript as elements of the array order.options[].