Difference between id and name attributes in HTML

Question

What is the difference between the id and name attributes  They both seem to serve the same purpose of providing an identifier   I would like to know  specifically with regards to HTML forms  whether or not using both is necessary or encouraged for any reasons

User · Answer

Use name attributes for form controls  such as  lt input gt  and  lt select gt    as that s the identifier used in the POST or GET call that happens on form submission   Use id attributes whenever you need to address a particular HTML element with CSS  JavaScript or a fragment identifier  It s possible to look up elements by name  too  but it s simpler and more reliable to look them up by ID

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Here is a brief summary   id is used to identify the HTML element through the Document Object Model  via JavaScript or styled with CSS   id is expected to be unique within the page   name corresponds to the form element and identifies what is posted back to the server

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name is deprecated for link targets  and invalid in HTML5  It no longer works at least in latest Firefox  v13   Change  lt a name  hello  gt  to lt a id  hello  gt   The target does not need to be an  lt a gt  tag  it can be  lt p id  hello   or  lt h2 id  hello  gt  etc  which is often cleaner code   As other posts say clearly  name is still used  needed  in forms  It is also still used in META tags

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This link has answers to the same basic question  but basically  id is used for scripting identification and name is for server-side   http   www velocityreviews com forums t115115-id-vs-name-attribute-for-html-controls html

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name Vs id  name   Name of the element  For example used by the server to identify the fields in form submits  Supporting elements are  lt button gt    lt form gt    lt fieldset gt    lt iframe gt    lt input gt    lt keygen gt    lt object gt    lt output gt    lt select gt    lt textarea gt    lt map gt    lt meta gt    lt param gt  Name does not have to be unique    id   Often used with CSS to style a specific element  The value of this attribute must be unique  Id is Global attributes  they can be used on all elements  though the attributes may have no effect on some elements  Must be unique in the whole document  This attribute s value must not contain white spaces  in contrast to the class attribute  which allows space-separated values  Using characters except ASCII letters and digits        -  and     may cause compatibility problems  as they weren t allowed in HTML 4  Though this restriction has been lifted in HTML 5  an ID should start with a letter for compatibility

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If you re not using the form s own submit method to send information to a server  and are instead doing it using javascript  you can use the name attribute to attach extra information to an input - rather like pairing it with a hidden input value  but looks neater because it s incorporated into the input   This bit does still currently work in Firefox although I suppose in the future it might not get allowed through   You can have multiple input fields with the same name value  as long as you aren t planning to submit the old fashioned way

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The ID of a form input element has nothing to do with the data contained within the element  IDs are for hooking the element with JavaScript and CSS  The name attribute  however  is used in the HTTP request sent by your browser to the server as a variable name associated with the data contained in the value attribute   For instance    lt form gt       lt input type  text  name  user  value  bob  gt       lt input type  password  name  password  value  abcd1234  gt   lt  form gt    When the form is submitted  the form data will be included in the HTTP header like this   If you add an ID attribute  it will not change anything in the HTTP header  It will just make it easier to hook it with CSS and JavaScript

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Below is an interesting use of the id attribute  It is used within the  tag and used to identify the form for  elements outside of the  boundaries so that they will be included with the other  fields within the form      lt form action  action page php  id  form1  gt   First name   lt input type  text  name  fname  gt  lt br gt    lt input type  submit  value  Submit  gt    lt  form gt     lt p gt The  Last name  field below is outside the form element  but still part of the form  lt  p gt   Last name   lt input type  text  name  lname  form  form1  gt

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Generally  it is assumed that name is always superseded by id  This is true  to some extent  but not for form fields and frame names  practically speaking  For example  with form elements the name attribute is used to determine the name-value pairs to be sent to a server-side program and should not be eliminated  Browsers do not use id in that manner  To be on the safe side  you could use name and id attributes on form elements  So  we would write the following    lt form id  myForm  name  myForm  gt        lt input type  text  id  userName  name  userName    gt   lt  form gt    To ensure compatibility  having matching name and id attribute values when both are defined is a good idea  However  be careful   some tags  particularly radio buttons  must have nonunique name values  but require unique id values  Once again  this should reference that id is not simply a replacement for name  they are different in purpose  Furthermore  do not discount the old-style approach  a deep look at modern libraries shows such syntax style used for performance and ease purposes at times  Your goal should always be in favor of compatibility   Now in most elements  the name attribute has been deprecated in favor of the more ubiquitous id attribute  However  in some cases  particularly form fields   lt button gt    lt input gt    lt select gt   and  lt textarea gt    the name attribute lives on because it continues to be required to set the name-value pair for form submission  Also  we find that some elements  notably frames and links  may continue to use the name attribute because it is often useful for retrieving these elements by name   There is a clear distinction between id and name  Very often when name continues on  we can set the values the same  However  id must be unique  and name in some cases shouldn   t   think radio buttons  Sadly  the uniqueness of id values  while caught by markup validation  is not as consistent as it should be  CSS implementation in browsers will style objects that share an id value  thus  we may not catch markup or style errors that could affect our JavaScript until runtime   This is taken from the book JavaScript- The Complete Reference by Thomas-Powell

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Based on personal experiences and according to the W3 Schools description for attributes    ID is a Global Attribute and applies to virtually all elements in HTML  It is used to uniquely identify elements on the Web page  and its value is mostly accessed from the frontend  typically through JavaScript or jQuery    name is an attribute that is useful to specific elements  such as form elements  etc  in HTML  Its value is mostly sent to the backend for processing    https   www w3schools com tags ref attributes asp

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The name attribute is used when sending data in a form submission   Different controls respond differently   For example  you may have several radio buttons with different id attributes  but the same name   When submitted  there is just the one value in the response - the radio button you selected   Of course  there s more to it than that  but it will definitely get you thinking in the right direction

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The id will give an element a id  so once you write real code   like JavaScript  you can use the id to read elements  The name is just a name so the user can see the name of the element  I guess   Example    lt h1 id  heading  gt text lt  h1 gt   lt script gt    document getElementById  heading      Reads the element that has the id  heading    lt  script gt      You can also use something like this  document getElementById  heading   value    Reads the value of the selected element    Is it helpful  Let me know if there is some problems

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ID is used to uniquely identify an element    Name is used in forms Although you  submit a form   if you dont give any name  nothing will will be submitted  Hence form elements need a name to get identified by form methods like  get or push    And the ones only with name attribute will go out

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ID tag - used by CSS  define a unique instance of a div  span or other elements  Appears within the Javascript DOM model  allowing you to access them with various function calls   Name tag for fields - This is unique per form -- unless you are doing an array which you want to pass to PHP server-side processing  You can access it via Javascript by name  but I think that it does not appear as a node in the DOM or some restrictions may apply  you cannot use  innerHTML  for example  if I recall correctly

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There is no literal difference between an id and name   name is identifier and is used in http request sent by browser to server as a variable name associated with data contained in  the value attribute of element   The id  on the other hand is a unique identifier for browser  client side and JavaScript Hence form needs an id while its elements need a name   id is more specifically used in adding attributes to unique elements In DOM methods Id is used in Javascript for referencing the specific element you want your action to take place on   For example    lt html gt   lt body gt    lt h1 id  demo  gt  lt  h1 gt    lt script gt  document getElementById  demo   innerHTML    Hello World     lt  script gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    Same can be achieved by name attribute  but it s preferred to use id in form and name for small form elements like the input tag or select tag

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lt form action  demo form asp  gt   lt label for  male  gt Male lt  label gt   lt input type  radio  name  sex  id  male  value  male  gt  lt br gt   lt label for  female  gt Female lt  label gt   lt input type  radio  name  sex  id  female  value  female  gt  lt br gt   lt input type  submit  value  Submit  gt   lt  form gt

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See this http   mindprod com jgloss htmlforms html IDVSNAME  What   s the difference  The short answer is  use both and don   t worry about it  But if you want to understand this goofiness  here   s the skinny  id  is for use as a target like this   lt some-element id  quot XXX quot  gt  lt  some-element gt  for links like this   lt a href  quot  XXX quot     name  is also used to label the fields in the message send to a server with an HTTP  HyperText Transfer Protocol  GET or POST when you hit submit in a form  id  labels the fields for use by JavaScript and Java DOM  Document Object Model   The names in name  must be unique within a form  The names in id  must be unique within the entire document  Sometimes the name  and id  names will differ  because the server is expecting the same name from various forms in the same document or various radio buttons in the same form as in the example above  The id  must be unique  the name  must not be  JavaScript needed unique names  but there were too many documents already out here without unique name  names  so the W3 people invented the id tag that was required to be unique  Unfortunately older browsers did not understand it  So you need both naming schemes in your forms   NOTE  attribute  quot name quot  for some tags like  lt a gt  is not supported in HTML5

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Id    1  It is used to identify the HTML element through the Document Object Model  via Javascript or styled with CSS    2  Id is expected to be unique within the page   Name corresponds to the form element and identifies what is posted back to the server  Example      lt form action  action page php  id  Myform  gt   First name   lt input type  text  name  FirstName  gt  lt br gt    lt input type  submit  value  Submit  gt    lt  form gt     lt p gt The  Last name  field below is outside the form element  but still part of the form  lt  p gt   Last name   lt input type  text  name  LastName  form  Myform  gt

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The way I think about it and use it is simple  id is used for CSS and JavaScript jQuery  has to be unique in a page  name is used for form handling on the server when a form is submitted via HTML  has to be unique in a form - to some extent  see Paul s comment below

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