Expressing IT

This ones old school , but as usual it is my memory supplement …
So is disabled=”true” and disabled=”false” same?Yes
… Don’t believe, well! thats the way it is … here is some quick explanation…
“disabled” is an attribute of any form element/field and hence can accept any value by its nature.

As long as this attribute is present, the element will be disabled regardless of its value. for eg.
<input type=”text” value=”This is disabled” disabled>
<input type=”text” value=”This is disabled” disabled=”disabled”>
<input type=”text” value=”This is disabled” disabled=”true”>
<input type=”text” value=”This is disabled” disabled=”false”>

All of the above will make the this form field “DISABLED”.

Simply not providing the attribute “DISABLED” keeps the Field “ABLED” … like below

<input type=”text” value=”This is not disabled” />

Remember “Any value (or no value at all) of the disabled attribute, the browser will render it disabled” . To keep things clear in our minds W3C recommends that we use disabled=”disabled” in these situations.

This is difference though when we use this attribute in javascript …

document.form.element.disabled = true; //the element will be disabled
document.form.element.disabled = false; //the element will be enabled

The above arguments are also true for these attributes and elements :

• checked (radio button and checkbox)
• selected (option)
• nowrap (td)