How to create a listbox in HTML without allowing multiple selection?

CodeBlue picture CodeBlue · Mar 8, 2012 · Viewed 303.6k times · Source

I don't have much experience in HTML. I am looking to create a simple listbox, but one of the requirements is to DISALLOW multiple selection. Most of the code for listboxes goes like this -

 <select name="sometext" multiple="multiple">
    <option>text1</option>
    <option>text2</option>
    <option>text3</option>
    <option>text4</option>
    <option>text5</option>
 </select>

But this allows for multiple selection.

Here, a similar question was asked, but the "best" answer has been downvoted. So I am not sure how else this could be done. Please help.

Answer

aaroncatlin picture aaroncatlin · Mar 8, 2012

Just use the size attribute:

<select name="sometext" size="5">
  <option>text1</option>
  <option>text2</option>
  <option>text3</option>
  <option>text4</option>
  <option>text5</option>
</select>

To clarify, adding the size attribute did not remove the multiple selection.

The single selection works because you removed the multiple="multiple" attribute.

Adding the size="5" attribute is still a good idea, it means that at least 5 lines must be displayed. See the full reference here