The 26 Boolean Attributes of HTML

Post from May 19, 2020 (↻ August 4, 2021), filed under Web Development.

There are Boolean attributes in HTML, and there are about two dozen of them—26, to be precise, unless I err somewhere. Here’s a quick rundown of what makes for a Boolean attribute, and what Boolean attributes there are in current HTML.

What is a Boolean at all? Citing the The Web Development Glossary, a Boolean is “a data type that has one of two possible values (usually denoted true and false).”

What is a Boolean attribute? A Boolean attribute is an attribute that can only be true or false.

How does a Boolean attribute work? According to the HTML specification:

The presence of a boolean attribute on an element represents the “true” value, and the absence of the attribute represents the “false” value.

Yet note:

The values “true” and “false” are not allowed on boolean attributes. To represent a false value, the attribute has to be omitted altogether.

So, what Boolean attributes are there?

The Boolean Attributes

Yes. That’s it.

About Me

I’m Jens Oliver Meiert, and I’m an engineering manager and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for Google, I’m close to the W3C and the WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly. Other than that, I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

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