textbox

A textbox is a graphical control that allows a user to input text. It appears in many user interfaces across software platforms, websites, and mobile apps. Textboxes may be single-line for short input or multi-line for longer entries, depending on the implementation.

In web development, HTML provides input type="text" for single-line input and the textarea element for multi-line input. Textboxes support attributes such as placeholder, value, required, maxlength, and disabled, and some implementations offer password masking or autofill. Desktop and mobile frameworks include textbox controls in various forms, such as WinForms or WPF TextBox, Java Swing text components, and GTK entries, with similar functional concepts.

Typical features and behavior include text content management, cursor position, selection, and clipboard operations. Textboxes may offer read-only or disabled modes, spellchecking, and autocomplete. Events commonly track content changes (onChange or onInput) and focus changes (onFocus, onBlur), enabling validation, search, or dynamic feedback.

Accessibility and usability considerations emphasize proper labeling with visible labels or aria-labels, keyboard accessibility, and visible focus indicators to aid users of assistive technologies. Security and data handling practices call for input validation and sanitization, especially for text that interacts with backend systems, to prevent injection attacks and ensure data integrity.

See also: text field, text area, input validation.