name attribute necessary?

[lindm]

In a form it often seems a waste of space with both the id and name attribute for a field, since they often are the same:

 

<input name="field" type="text" id="field" value="0" />

 

So far both have been necessary for a form submit and for instance if I also have javascript handling of the field. I have read that in xhtml id replaces name but can't get this to work. What would be nice is if the name attribute could be removed for a input field and when the form is submitted the id becomes part of the $_POST.

[trq]

name attributes are the only way to reference an element once your form has been submitted.

[AngelG107]

Actually the id in an input field is not necessary even though you're using Javascript

to refer to it, that could be done using :

 

document.forms[0].fieldname.value = "Field Value";

 

You can remove the id, and simply refer to it like that in Javascript,

and then in PHP,ASP, etc... you can refer to it with the name value.

 

PS : forms is an array so the '0' is referring to the first form field in the HTML file.