JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

Input.value — the value displayed or submitted by a form element

Availability

Netscape 2; buggy in Internet Explorer 3

Synopsis

                  input.value

Description

value is a read/write string property of all form elements that specifies the value displayed by the form element and/or submitted for the element when the form is submitted. The value property of the Text element, for example, is the user’s input, which is also the value submitted with the form. For the Checkbox object, on the other hand, the value property specifies a string that is not displayed but is submitted with the form if the Checkbox element is checked when the form is submitted.

The initial value of the value property is specified by the value attribute of the HTML tag that defines the form element.

For Button, Submit, and Reset objects, the value property specifies the text that appears within the button. On some platforms, changing the value property of these elements actually changes the text displayed by the buttons onscreen. This does not work on all platforms, however, and is not an advisable technique. Changing the label of a button may change the size of the button, causing it to overlap and obscure other portions of the document.

The Select element has a value property, like all form elements, but does not use it. Instead, the value submitted by this element is specified by the value property of the Option objects it contains.

For security reasons, the value property of the FileUpload element is read-only. ...