Description

The HTML element <option> is used to define an option in the dropdown list of the <select> element.

A dropdown list must contain at least one <option> element.

The below table summarizes its usage.

Usage Details
Placement Parent element is <select> if the <optgroup> element is not used, else the parent is the <optgroup> element.
It is defined as an Inline element.
Contents It can contain text.
Tags The opening tag is required, but the closing tag is optional.
Versions HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5

Syntax

Here is the basic syntax of the <option> element.

<option value="option-value">...</option>

Examples

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Example - HTML Element option</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form>
        <select>
            <option value="apple">Apple</option>
            <option value="banana">Banana</option>
            <option value="papaya">Papaya</option>
        </select>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Attributes

The following table shows the list of supported and unsupported attributes for the <option> element.

Attribute Type Details
Element-Specific Attributes The tag <option> has some element-specific attributes listed in the below table.
Global Attributes Like all other HTML tags, the tag <option> supports the HTML Global Attributes.
Event Attributes The tag <option> also supports the HTML Event Attributes.

Here is a list of attributes that are specific to the <option> element.

Attribute Value Required Description
label text No Specifies a short label for an option.
disabled disabled No Boolean attribute that indicates that the enclosed option is disabled i.e. the option is not selectable.
selected selected No Boolean attribute that indicates that the option is initially selected.
value option-value No Defines a value for an option.
If it is not defined, the value of an <option> element is the text content of the element.

Browser Compatibility

The tag <option> is supported in all modern browsers.

  • Google Chrome 1+
  • Internet Explorer or Edge 2+
  • Firefox 1+
  • Apple Safari 1+
  • Opera 2.1+

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