<input type="reset">

<input> elements of type reset are rendered as buttons, with a default click event handler that resets all inputs in the form to their initial values.

Try it

Note: You should usually avoid including reset buttons in your forms. They're rarely useful, and are instead more likely to frustrate users who click them by mistake (often while trying to click the submit button).

Value

An <input type="reset"> element's value attribute contains a string that is used as the button's label providing the button with an accessible description. Buttons such as reset don't have a value otherwise.

Setting the value attribute

html
<input type="reset" value="Reset the form" />

Omitting the value attribute

If you don't specify a value, you get a button with the default label (typically "Reset," but this will vary depending on the user agent):

html
<input type="reset" />

Using reset buttons

<input type="reset"> buttons are used to reset forms. If you want to create a custom button and then customize the behavior using JavaScript, you need to use <input type="button">, or better still, a <button> element.

A simple reset button

We'll begin by creating a simple reset button:

html
<form>
  <div>
    <label for="example">Type in some sample text</label>
    <input id="example" type="text" />
  </div>
  <div>
    <input type="reset" value="Reset the form" />
  </div>
</form>

This renders like so:

Try entering some text into the text field, and then pressing the reset button.

Adding a reset keyboard shortcut

To add a keyboard shortcut to a reset button — just as you would with any <input> for which it makes sense — you use the accesskey global attribute.

In this example, r is specified as the access key (you'll need to press r plus the particular modifier keys for your browser/OS combination; see accesskey for a useful list of those).

html
<form>
  <div>
    <label for="example">Type in some sample text</label>
    <input id="example" type="text" />
  </div>
  <div>
    <input type="reset" value="Reset the form" accesskey="r" />
  </div>
</form>

The problem with the above example is that there's no way for the user to know what the access key is! This is especially true since the modifiers are typically non-standard to avoid conflicts. When building a site, be sure to provide this information in a way that doesn't interfere with the site design (for example by providing an easily accessible link that points to information on what the site access keys are). Adding a tooltip to the button (using the title attribute) can also help, although it's not a complete solution for accessibility purposes.

Disabling and enabling a reset button

To disable a reset button, specify the disabled attribute on it, like so:

html
<input type="reset" value="Disabled" disabled />

You can enable and disable buttons at run time by setting disabled to true or false; in JavaScript this looks like btn.disabled = true or btn.disabled = false.

Note: See the <input type="button"> page for more ideas about enabling and disabling buttons.

Validation

Buttons don't participate in constraint validation; they have no real value to be constrained.

Examples

We've included simple examples above. There isn't really anything more to say about reset buttons.

Technical summary

Value A string used as the button's label
Events click
Supported common attributes type and value
IDL attributes value
DOM interface

HTMLInputElement

Methods None
Implicit ARIA Role button

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# reset-button-state-(type=reset)

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also