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HTML fieldset tag

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Table of contents

Bypass table of contents

1 Description
2 Examples
3 Attributes
1. 3.1 id
2. 3.2 class
3. 3.3 style
4. 3.4 title
5. 3.5 lang
6. 3.6 dir
4 Events

Bypass main content

Description

The HTML fieldset element groups controls in a form. This can be useful to group controls thematically in a form (e.g., personal information, occupational information, preferences, etc.). The title for a fieldset can be set using the HTML legend element.

Visually, most browsers draw a frame around the controls that belong a to a fieldset.

Examples

The following example divides the controls in two groups to help the visitors better understand and fill the form.

Code

<form action="example.php">
<fieldset>
<legend>Personal information</legend>
Name: <input type="text" name="pname" />
Address: <input type="text" name="paddress" />
Phone: <input type="text" name="pphone" />
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Work information</legend>
Address: <input type="text" name="waddress" />
Phone: <input type="text" name="wphone" />
</fieldset>
</form>

View

Personal information Name:
Address:
Phone:

Work information Address:
Phone:

Attributes

id (name)

The "id" attribute assigns an identifier to the associated element. This identifier must be unique in the document and can be used to refer to that element in other instances (e.g., from client-side scripts).

<p id="paragraph1">This is the first paragraph, named "paragraph1". To dynamically change its properties use this identifier.</p>

class (cdata)

The "class" attribute assigns a class name (or a list of class names separated by spaces) to the container element. It is used together with style sheets and tells the browser the class (or classes) to which the element is associated.

A class gives presentational attributes to elements (read more at the Cascading Style Sheets tutorial).

<p class="references">This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks</p>
<p class="references important">This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks... and is more important than the one before.</p>

style (style)

This attribute is used to define presentational attributes for the containing element, and its value should be composed by style sheets properties. Although in some cases it can become useful, a better practice is to place presentational attributes in external files, relating them to elements with the "class" attribute. This way you keep the semantic and presentational parts of your document separated.

You can find more information about presentational attributes at the Cascading Style Sheets tutorial.

<p style="color: #0000FF; font-size: 12pt">This is a paragraph with a defined style.</p>
<p>And this is another text without style.</p>

title (text)

The purpose of this attribute is to provide a title for the element. Its value must be a short and accurate description of the element. Browsers usually render it as a "tool tip" when the user puts the mouse pointer over the element for a short period of time.

Code

View

HTML code

lang (langcode)

Specifies the language of an element's content. The default value is "unknown".

When writing XHTML 1.0 documents, the attribute used to specify the language of an elements is "xml:lang". For forward and backward compatibility both attributes can be used simultaneously as in the example below. Note, that in XHTML 1.1 the "lang" attribute has been completely replaced by "xml:lang" and its use is no longer valid.

<p lang="en" xml:lang="en">This is a paragraph in English.</p>
<p lang="es" xml:lang="es">Este es un párrafo en español.</p>

dir

This attribute indicates the direction in which the texts of the element must be read. This includes content, attribute values and tables. It has two possible values that are case-insensitive:

RTL: Right to left.
LTR: Left to right.

<q lang="he" dir="rtl">...an Hebrew quotation...</q>

Events

onclick
ondblclick
onmousedown
onmouseup
onmouseover
onmousemove
onmouseout
onkeypress
onkeydown
onkeyup

See a complete list and information about events in HTML