HTML Attributes

HTML attributes provide additional information about HTML elements.

HTML Attributes

  • All HTML elements can have attributes
  • Attributes provide additional information about elements
  • Attributes are always specified in the start tag
  • Attributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"

The href Attribute

The <a> tag defines a hyperlink. The href attribute specifies the URL of the page the link goes to:

Example

<a href="https://codingroar.blogspot.com"> Visit coding smash </a>

The src Attribute

The <img> tag is used to embed an image in an HTML page. The src attribute specifies the path to the image to be displayed:

Example

<img src="img_2.jpg">

The width and height Attributes

The <img> tag should also contain the width and height attributes, which specifies the width and height of the image (in pixels):

<img src="img_2.jpg" width="500" height="600">

The alt Attribute

The required alt attribute for the <img> tag specifies an alternate text for an image, if the image for some reason cannot be displayed. This can be due to slow connection, or an error in the src attribute, or if the user uses a screen reader.

Example

<img src="img_2.jpg" alt="Girl under the tree">

Example

See what happens if we try to display an image that does not exist:

<img src="img_typ.jpg" alt="Girl under the tree">


The style Attribute

The style attribute is used to add styles to an element, such as color, font, size, and more.

Example

<p style="color:red;">This is a red paragraph.</p>

The title Attribute

The title attribute defines some extra information about an element.

The value of the title attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the element:

Example

<p title="I'm a Smashcoder">This is a paragraph.</p>

We Suggest: Always Use Lowercase Attributes

The HTML standard does not require lowercase attribute names.

The title attribute (and all other attributes) can be written with uppercase or lowercase like title or TITLE.

However, Roar Coding recommends lowercase attributes in HTML, and demands lowercase attributes for stricter document types like XHTML.

We Suggest: Always Quote Attribute Values

The HTML standard does not require quotes around attribute values.

However, Roar Coding recommends quotes in HTML, and demands quotes for stricter document types like XHTML.

Good:

<a href="https://codingroar.blogspot.com">Visit our HTML tutorial</a>

Bad:

<a href=https://www.codingroar.blogspot.com/html/>Visit our HTML tutorial</a>

Sometimes you have to use quotes. This example will not display the title attribute correctly, because it contains a space:

Example

<p title=home codingroar>

Chapter Summary


  • All HTML elements can have attributes.
  • The href attribute of <a> specifies the URL of the page the link goes to.
  • The src attribute of <img> specifies the path to the image to be displayed.
  • The width and height attributes of <img> provide size information for images.
  • The alt attribute of <img> provides an alternate text for an image.
  • The style attribute is used to add styles to an element, such as color, font, size, and more.
  • The lang attribute of the <html> tag declares the language of the Web page.
  • The title attribute defines some extra information about an element.