<input type="reset">

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.

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):

<input type="reset" />

<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.

We'll begin by creating a basic reset button:

<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.

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).

<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.

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

<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.

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

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

• <input> and the HTMLInputElement interface which implements it.
• Forms and buttons
• HTML forms
• The <button> element
• Compatibility of CSS properties