Which DOM elements cannot accept an id?

Question

I'm reading this basic tutorial on canvas elements. The (almost) in the following sentence caught my eye:

The id attribute isn't specific to the element but is one of the default HTML attributes which can be applied to (almost) every HTML element

Which html elements cannot accept an id?

Denys Séguret · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-19 19:06:52Z

14

From w3schools (yes, I know...) :

Note: The id attribute is not valid in: <base>, <head>, <html>, <meta>, <param>, <script>, <style>, and <title>.

Note that this is only valid for HTML4 but that explains the "almost" of the tutorial.

As others have pointed out, HTML5 accepts id on all elements.

edited Jun 19, 2012 at 19:06

answered Jun 19, 2012 at 18:54

Denys Séguret

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7 Comments

Madara's Ghost Over a year ago

This is the only answer I've ever upvoted which contains w3schools.

John Stimac Over a year ago

"The HTML5 specification states that global attributes may be specified on all HTML elements, even those not specified by HTML5." developer.mozilla.org/en/HTML/Global_attributes

Robert Harvey Over a year ago

w3schools gets a lot of hate because they pwned the W3C in terms of SEO, and because they don't always adequately proofread their stuff to make sure it's correct. Many of their articles are considered over-simplified, especially the ones that use string concatenation in SQL statements instead of parameters (making their examples vulnerable to SQL injection).

Madara's Ghost Over a year ago

You might just make history, a "Nice Answer" with w3schools in it.

Jukka K. Korpela Over a year ago

In this specific issue, w3school is wrong on two accounts: it does not specify that its statement applies to HTML 4.01 (not XHTML 1.0 or HTML5); and it incorrectly claims that param does not allow id, since it does even in HTML 4.01.

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animuson · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-19 21:26:52Z

In HTML5, the id attribute is a global attribute and can be specified on any element.

If you look through the Document Type Declaration for HTML4, you can find the elements which do not have %attrs; defined in their attribute list to indicate they do not support the id attribute. Those included are near the bottom in the "Document Head" section: HEAD, TITLE, BASE, META, STYLE, SCRIPT, and HTML.

Note that although the PARAM element does not include the %attrs; declaration in its attribute list, it does explicitly allow the id attribute itself in that list.

<!ATTLIST PARAM
  id          ID             #IMPLIED  -- document-wide unique id --
  name        CDATA          #REQUIRED -- property name --
  value       CDATA          #IMPLIED  -- property value --
  valuetype   (DATA|REF|OBJECT) DATA   -- How to interpret value --
  type        %ContentType;  #IMPLIED  -- content type for value
                                      when valuetype=ref --
  >

Jukka K. Korpela · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-19 18:57:56Z

3

It’s a bit surprising that they say this in the context of the canvas element, which is an HTML5 element. In HTML5, the id attribute is allowed for any element without exception. Earlier versions of HTML impose various limitations. HTML 4.01 excludes base, head, html, meta, script, style, and title, but XHTML 1.01 removes this restriction.

answered Jun 19, 2012 at 18:57

Jukka K. Korpela

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