[html] Difference between _self, _top, and _parent in the anchor tag target attribute

I know _blank opens a new tab when used with the anchor tag and also, there are self-defined targets I use when using framesets but I will like to know the difference between _parent, _self and _top.

target="_blank"

Opens a new window and show the related data.

target="_self"

Opens the window in the same frame, it means existing window itself.

target="_top"

Opens the linked document in the full body of the window.

target="_parent"

Opens data in the size of parent window.

Below is an image showing nested frames and the effect of different target values, followed by an explanation of the image.

Imagine a webpage containing 3 nested <iframe> aka "frame"/"frameset". So:

• the outermost webpage/browser is the starting context
• the outermost webpage is the parent of frame 3
• frame 3 is the parent of frame 2
• frame 2 is the parent of frame 1
• frame 1 is the innermost frame

Then target attributes have these effects:

• If frame 1 has a link with target="_self", the link targets frame 1 (i.e. the link targets the frame containing the link (i.e. targets itself))
• If frame 1 has a link with target="_parent", the link targets frame 2 (i.e. the link targets the parent frame)
• If frame 1 has a link with target="_top", the link targets the initial webpage (i.e. the link targets the topmost/outermost frame; (in this case; the link skips past the grandparent frame 3))
  • If frame 2 has a link with target="_top", the link also targets the initial webpage (i.e. again, the link targets the topmost/outermost frame)
• If any of these frames has a link with target="_blank", the link targets an auxiliary browsing context, aka a "new window"/"new tab"
  • This applies to frame 3, frame 2, frame 1, and the outermost webpage. Be careful of "tabnabbing" in case of target="_blank"; use the rel="noopener" attribute

Here is a practical example of Anchor tag with different

Target Attribute

Section 6.16 Frame target names in the HTML 4.01 spec defines the meanings, but it is partly outdated. It refers to “windows”, whereas HTML5 drafts more realistically speak about “browsing contexts”, since modern browsers often use tabs instead of windows in this context.

Briefly, _self is the default (current browsing context, i.e. current window or tab), so it is useful only to override a <base target=...> setting. The value _parent refers to the frameset that is the parent of the current frame, whereas _top “breaks out of all frames” and opens the linked document in the entire browser window.