html - How to clear a form?

Question

For example I have a form like this:

<form method='post' action='someaction.php' name='myform'>

<input type='text' name='text1'>
<input type='text' name='text2'>

<input type='checkbox' name="check1">Check Me

<textarea rows="2" cols="20" name='textarea1'></textarea>

<select name='select1'>
  <option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
  <option value="saab">Saab</option>
  <option value="mercedes">Mercedes</option>
  <option value="audi">Audi</option>
</select>

<input type='reset' value='Reset' name='reset'>
<input type='submit' value='Submit' name='submit'>

</form>

When I press Reset it empties all fields. But if I populate some fields using URL params and then press Reset, it only empties fields which I enter after form reload.

How can I empty all fields whether some fields are already populated at the time of form load.

Answer 1

As others pointed out, I think you should reconsider the need to blank the form. But, if you really need that functionality, this is one way to do it:

Plain Javascript:

function resetForm(form) {
    // clearing inputs
    var inputs = form.getElementsByTagName('input');
    for (var i = 0; i<inputs.length; i++) {
        switch (inputs[i].type) {
            // case 'hidden':
            case 'text':
                inputs[i].value = '';
                break;
            case 'radio':
            case 'checkbox':
                inputs[i].checked = false;   
        }
    }

    // clearing selects
    var selects = form.getElementsByTagName('select');
    for (var i = 0; i<selects.length; i++)
        selects[i].selectedIndex = 0;

    // clearing textarea
    var text= form.getElementsByTagName('textarea');
    for (var i = 0; i<text.length; i++)
        text[i].innerHTML= '';

    return false;
}

Note that I commented out the case in which I clear the hidden inputs. Most of the time, this is not necessary.

For this to work, you need to call the function from the onclick handler of a button (or some other way), e.g. like this:

<input type='reset' value='Reset' name='reset' onclick="return resetForm(this.form);">

You can test it all here on jsFiddle.

If you use jQuery in your project, you can do this with much less code (and no need to change the HTML):

jQuery(function($) { // onDomReady

    // reset handler that clears the form
    $('form[name="myform"] input:reset').click(function () {
        $('form[name="myform"]')
            .find(':radio, :checkbox').removeAttr('checked').end()
            .find('textarea, :text, select').val('')

        return false;
    });

});

Also, note that I do not clear the values of hidden inputs, check-boxes and radio buttons.

Play with this here.