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What Is an HTML Attribute?

An HTML attribute is a name-value pair that you can add to an element’s opening tag.

HTML attribute is an optional property of an element used to change the element’s behavior or provide extra information about it.

HTML attributes typically have the form name="value". Here is the syntax:

<tagName attribute-name="value"></tagName>

Example: An Anchor Tag with Two Attributes

Section titled “Example: An Anchor Tag with Two Attributes”

The HTML snippet below defines an anchor tag (<a>) with href and target attributes.

<a href="https://codesweetly.com" target="_blank">
Visit CodeSweetly's Homepage
</a>

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Note that boolean attributes—such as required, readonly, disabled, and check—permit the omission of a value.

Example: An Input Tag with a disabled Boolean Attribute

Section titled “Example: An Input Tag with a disabled Boolean Attribute”

The HTML snippet below defines an input tag (<input>) with a disabled attribute.

<input type="color" value="#ba55d3" disabled />

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Let’s now see how to create custom attributes.

You can use the HTML data attribute to create custom attributes.

Example 1: An <input> element with a custom data attribute

Section titled “Example 1: An <input> element with a custom data attribute”

The HTML snippet below defines an <input> element with a custom HTML attribute.

<input type="button" value="Click Me to Buy" data-test-btn="dummy-btn" />

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Example 2: A <li> elements with custom HTML attributes

Section titled “Example 2: A <li> elements with custom HTML attributes”

The HTML snippet below defines three list elements with custom HTML attributes.

<h1>2021 U.S. News Best Countries Ranking</h1>
<ol>
<li data-first-best-country="north-american">Canada</li>
<li data-second-best-country="asia">Japan</li>
<li data-third-best-country="europe">Germany</li>
</ol>

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