HTMLTextAreaElement: defaultValue property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The defaultValue property of the HTMLTextAreaElement interface represents the default text content of this text area. Getting and setting this value is equivalent to getting and setting textContent on the <textarea>.

Value

A string.

Examples

In the example below, the defaultValue still returns the value originally written in the HTML. If a default value is set, either via HTML or the defaultValue property, user input will update the value but will not overwrite the defaultValue.

js
const textareaElement = document.getElementById("comment");
console.log(textArea.defaultValue);
textArea.defaultValue = "This is the default text now!";

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-textarea-defaultvalue

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
defaultValue

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also