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/DOM

document.forms

The forms read-only property of the Document interface returns an HTMLCollection listing all the <form> elements contained in the document.

Note: Similarly, you can access a list of a form's component user input elements using the HTMLFormElement.elements property.

Syntax

collection = document.forms;

Value

An HTMLCollection object listing all of the document's forms. Each item in the collection is a HTMLFormElement representing a single <form> element.

If the document has no forms, the returned collection is empty, with a length of zero.

Examples

Getting form information

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
<title>document.forms example</title>
</head>

<body>

<form id="robby">
  <input type="button" onclick="alert(document.forms[0].id);" value="robby's form" />
</form>

<form id="dave">
  <input type="button" onclick="alert(document.forms[1].id);" value="dave's form" />
</form>

<form id="paul">
  <input type="button" onclick="alert(document.forms[2].id);" value="paul's form" />
</form>

</body>
</html>

Getting an element from within a form

var selectForm = document.forms[index];
var selectFormElement = document.forms[index].elements[index];

Named form access

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>document.forms example</title>
</head>

<body>

<form name="login">
  <input name="email" type="email">
  <input name="password" type="password">
  <button type="submit">Log in</button>
</form>

<script>
  var loginForm = document.forms.login; // Or document.forms['login']
  loginForm.elements.email.placeholder = '[email protected]';
  loginForm.elements.password.placeholder = 'password';
</script>
</body>
</html>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'Document.forms' in that specification.	Living Standard
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'Document.forms' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?

	Mobile
	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Edge Mobile	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	iOS Safari	Samsung Internet
Basic support	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?