Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

HTML HTML Forms Choosing Options Checkboxes

Difference between value + id in HTML radio button? [forms]

Just don't understand the different functions between the two, the content seems to be the same?

Thanks- Michele

2 Answers

Stanley Thijssen
Stanley Thijssen
22,831 Points

The value will hold the state of the radio button. It can be selected or not selected. The id of the radio button (which u give yourself) can be anything you want to use to recognise this radio button.

Jeremy Castanza
Jeremy Castanza
12,081 Points

Michele,

To put it into perspective, it helps to think about what will happen to the data that a user puts into a form when it's submitted. The data is going to go somewhere or do something.

For you, the front end developer - the ID has importance:

  • ID = Design (Helps to grab the element that you want and associate a label to an input)

For the back-end developer - the value and name attributes have importance:

  • Value = Back-end Development (Usually a value in a database column)
  • Name = Back-end Development (Usually a column in a database table)

As a front end developer, you've the back-end pieces are important. Otherwise, your back end developer won't have any data to process, store, etc.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Jeremy