Disable/enable an input with jQuery?

Asked 2023-09-20 20:28:43 View 6,714
$input.disabled = true;

or

$input.disabled = "disabled";

Which is the standard way? And, conversely, how do you enable a disabled input?

Answers

jQuery 1.6+

To change the disabled property you should use the .prop() function.

$("input").prop('disabled', true);
$("input").prop('disabled', false);

jQuery 1.5 and below

The .prop() function doesn't exist, but .attr() does similar:

Set the disabled attribute.

$("input").attr('disabled','disabled');

To enable again, the proper method is to use .removeAttr()

$("input").removeAttr('disabled');

In any version of jQuery

You can always rely on the actual DOM object and is probably a little faster than the other two options if you are only dealing with one element:

// assuming an event handler thus 'this'
this.disabled = true;

The advantage to using the .prop() or .attr() methods is that you can set the property for a bunch of selected items.


Note: In 1.6 there is a .removeProp() method that sounds a lot like removeAttr(), but it SHOULD NOT BE USED on native properties like 'disabled' Excerpt from the documentation:

Note: Do not use this method to remove native properties such as checked, disabled, or selected. This will remove the property completely and, once removed, cannot be added again to element. Use .prop() to set these properties to false instead.

In fact, I doubt there are many legitimate uses for this method, boolean props are done in such a way that you should set them to false instead of "removing" them like their "attribute" counterparts in 1.5

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • As an aside, remember that, if you want to disable ALL form input controls - incl. checkboxes, radios, textareas, etc. - you have to select ':input', not just 'input'. The latter selects only actual <input> elements. - anyone
  • @CornelMasson input,textarea,select,button is a little better to use than :input -- :input as a selector is quite inefficient because it has to select * then loop over each element and filter by tagname - if you pass the 4 tagname selectors directly it is MUCH faster. Also, :input is not a standard CSS selector, so any performance gains that are possible from querySelectorAll are lost - anyone
  • Does this just prevent the user from accessing it, or does it actually remove it from the web request? - anyone
  • Using the .removeProp("disabled") was causing the issue of "property getting removed completely and not getting added again" as pointed out by @ThomasDavidBaker, in case of some browsers like Chrome, whereas it was working fine on some like Firefox. We should really be careful here. Always use .prop("disabled",false) instead - anyone
  • Neither .prop or .attr are sufficient for disabling anchor elements; .prop won't even grey out the 'control' (.attr does, but the href is still active). You have to also add a click event handler that calls preventDefault(). - anyone

Just for the sake of new conventions && making it adaptable going forward (unless things change drastically with ECMA6(????):

$(document).on('event_name', '#your_id', function() {
    $(this).removeAttr('disabled');
});

and

$(document).off('event_name', '#your_id', function() {
    $(this).attr('disabled','disabled');   
});

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • Jikes! Why $(document).on('event_name', '#your_id', function() {...}) instead of $('#your_id').on('event_name', function() {...}). As described in the jQuery .on() documentation the former uses delegation and listens to all event_name events that bubble up to document and checks them for a matching #your_id. The latter listens specifically to $('#your_id') events only and that scales better. - anyone
  • The former works for elements inserted into the DOM at any point, the latter only for those extant at that moment. - anyone
  • @crazymykl Correct but you shouldn't add elements with an id already present on your page. - anyone
// Disable #x
$( "#x" ).prop( "disabled", true );
// Enable #x
$( "#x" ).prop( "disabled", false );

Sometimes you need to disable/enable the form element like input or textarea. Jquery helps you to easily make this with setting disabled attribute to "disabled". For e.g.:

//To disable 
$('.someElement').attr('disabled', 'disabled');

To enable disabled element you need to remove "disabled" attribute from this element or empty it's string. For e.g:

//To enable 
$('.someElement').removeAttr('disabled');

// OR you can set attr to "" 
$('.someElement').attr('disabled', '');

reference: http://garmoncheg.blogspot.fr/2011/07/how-to-disableenable-element-with.html

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

$("input")[0].disabled = true;

or

$("input")[0].disabled = false;

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • Of course the question asked for jQuery and this is changing the state in plain JavaScript, but it works. - anyone
  • This changes the state in JavaScript, but it still uses a jQuery selector to get the first input. - anyone
  • But i don't think we are making encyclopedia of jquery here, if an answer works, it's good - anyone

There are many ways using them you can enable/disable any element :

Approach 1

$("#txtName").attr("disabled", true);

Approach 2

$("#txtName").attr("disabled", "disabled");

If you are using jQuery 1.7 or higher version then use prop(), instead of attr().

$("#txtName").prop("disabled", "disabled");

If you wish to enable any element then you just have to do opposite of what you did to make it disable. However jQuery provides another way to remove any attribute.

Approach 1

$("#txtName").attr("disabled", false);

Approach 2

$("#txtName").attr("disabled", "");

Approach 3

$("#txtName").removeAttr("disabled");

Again, if you are using jQuery 1.7 or higher version then use prop(), instead of attr(). That's is. This is how you enable or disable any element using jQuery.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

Use like this,

 $( "#id" ).prop( "disabled", true );

 $( "#id" ).prop( "disabled", false );

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

You can put this somewhere global in your code:

$.prototype.enable = function () {
    $.each(this, function (index, el) {
        $(el).removeAttr('disabled');
    });
}

$.prototype.disable = function () {
    $.each(this, function (index, el) {
        $(el).attr('disabled', 'disabled');
    });
}

And then you can write stuff like:

$(".myInputs").enable();
$("#otherInput").disable();

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • While wrapping the functionality is handy, you should have used prop and not attr with the disabled property for it to work correctly (assuming jQuery 1.6 or above). - anyone
  • @TrueBlueAussie What is the downside of using attr ? I use the above code in some projects and as far as I remember it works ok - anyone
  • The obvious exceptions are controls with properties behind the scenes. The most famous one is the checked property of checkboxes. Using attr will not give the same result. - anyone

If you just want to invert the current state (like a toggle button behaviour):

$("input").prop('disabled', ! $("input").prop('disabled') );

As noted in comments, the following will also toggle the prop:

$("input").prop('disabled', function(i, v) { return !v; });

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • thanks i have a same thing for the toggle it is; $("input").prop('disabled', function(i, v) { return !v; }); - anyone

Update for 2018:

Now there's no need for jQuery and it's been a while since document.querySelector or document.querySelectorAll (for multiple elements) do almost exactly same job as $, plus more explicit ones getElementById, getElementsByClassName, getElementsByTagName

Disabling one field of "input-checkbox" class

document.querySelector('.input-checkbox').disabled = true;

or multiple elements

document.querySelectorAll('.input-checkbox').forEach(el => el.disabled = true);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • the question specifically asks about jQuery...but equally your statement is correct, and worth knowing that jQuery doesn't need to be used for this when there are multiple elements anymore. - anyone

this works for me

$("#values:input").attr("disabled",true);
$("#values:input").attr("disabled",false);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

You can use the jQuery prop() method to disable or enable form element or control dynamically using jQuery. The prop() method require jQuery 1.6 and above.

Example:

<script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function(){
            $('form input[type="submit"]').prop("disabled", true);
            $(".agree").click(function(){
                if($(this).prop("checked") == true){
                    $('form input[type="submit"]').prop("disabled", false);
                }
                else if($(this).prop("checked") == false){
                    $('form input[type="submit"]').prop("disabled", true);
                }
            });
        });
    </script>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

An alternate way to disable the input field is by using jQuery and css like this:

jQuery("#inputFieldId").css({"pointer-events":"none"})

and to enable the same input the code is as follows:

jQuery("#inputFieldId").css({"pointer-events":""})

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

Disable:

$('input').attr('readonly', true); // Disable it.
$('input').addClass('text-muted'); // Gray it out with bootstrap.

Enable:

$('input').attr('readonly', false); // Enable it.
$('input').removeClass('text-muted'); // Back to normal color with bootstrap.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

Disable true for input type :

In case of a specific input type (Ex. Text type input)

$("input[type=text]").attr('disabled', true);

For all type of input type

$("input").attr('disabled', true);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • Thanks this helped me isolate to an input name. $("input[name=method]").prop('disabled', true); - anyone
<html>
<body>

Name: <input type="text" id="myText">



<button onclick="disable()">Disable Text field</button>
<button onclick="enable()">Enable Text field</button>

<script>
function disable() {
    document.getElementById("myText").disabled = true;
}
function enable() {
    document.getElementById("myText").disabled = false;
}
</script>

</body>
</html>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

  • From review queue: May I request you to please add some more context around your answer. Code-only answers are difficult to understand. It will help the asker and future readers both if you can add more information in your post. - anyone

I used @gnarf answer and added it as function

   $.fn.disabled = function (isDisabled) {
     if (isDisabled) {
       this.attr('disabled', 'disabled');
     } else {
       this.removeAttr('disabled');
     }
   };

Then use like this

$('#myElement').disable(true);

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

2018, without JQuery (ES6)

Disable all input:

[...document.querySelectorAll('input')].map(e => e.disabled = true);

Disable input with id="my-input"

document.getElementById('my-input').disabled = true;

The question is with JQuery, it's just FYI.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

Approach 4 (this is extension of wild coder answer)

txtName.disabled=1     // 0 for enable
<input id="txtName">

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43

In jQuery Mobile:

For disable

$('#someselectElement').selectmenu().selectmenu('disable').selectmenu('refresh', true);
$('#someTextElement').textinput().textinput('disable');

For enable

$('#someselectElement').selectmenu().selectmenu('enable').selectmenu('refresh', true);
$('#someTextElement').textinput('enable');

Answered   2023-09-20 20:28:43