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Here's a page describing the differences (basically you can put html into a )
And another page describing why people avoid (Hint: IE6)
Another IE problem when using :
And while we're talking about IE, it's
got a couple of bugs related to the
width of buttons. It'll mysteriously
add extra padding when you're trying
to add styles, meaning you have to add
a tiny hack to get things under
control.
DarkAjax
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answered Jan 22 '09 at 13:20
Tamas CzinegeTamas Czinege
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213
This answer was in 2009, since IE6 is dead now I assume there is no reason not to use now?
– Rosdi Kasim
Feb 26 '13 at 11:06
79
If they want to pirate , let them get a sucky version of your site. Drop IE6, drop IE7, unfortunately IE8 still needs support.
– Jared
Aug 15 '13 at 1:33
16
According to Microsoft's IE6 Countdown page, China's IE6 usage is still clocking in (as of Jan 2014) at about 22%. ie6death.com notes that IE6 support is ending April 8, 2014.
– BryanH
Jan 18 '14 at 23:33
359
Just as a side note, will implicitly submit, which can cause problems if you want to use a button in a form without it submitting. Thus, another reason to use (or )
Edit - more details
Without a type, button implicitly receives type of submit. It does not matter how many submit buttons or inputs there are in the form, any one of them which is explicitly or implicitly typed as submit, when clicked, will submit the form.
There are 3 supported types for a button
submit || "submits the form when clicked (default)"
reset || "resets the fields in the form when clicked"
button || "clickable, but without any event handler until one is assigned"
radiovisual
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answered Apr 9 '12 at 20:13
Travis JTravis J
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180
This article seems to offer a pretty good overview of the difference.
From the page:
Buttons created with the BUTTON element function just like buttons
created with the INPUT element, but
they offer richer rendering
possibilities: the BUTTON element may
have content. For example, a BUTTON
element that contains an image
functions like and may resemble an
INPUT element whose type is set to
“image”, but the BUTTON element type
allows content.
The Button Element - W3C
Andrei Botalov
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answered Jan 22 '09 at 13:19
NoldorinNoldorin
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Inside a element you can put content, like text or images.
Click Me!
This is the difference between this element and buttons created with the element.
Danield
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answered Mar 28 '12 at 4:27
SanthoshSanthosh
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Quote
Important: If you use the button element in an HTML form, different browsers will submit different values. Internet Explorer will submit the text between the and tags, while other browsers will submit the content of the value attribute. Use the input element to create buttons in an HTML form.
If I understand correctly, the answer is compatibility and input consistency from browser to browser
Joel Coehoorn
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answered Jan 22 '09 at 13:18
user54579user54579
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Anchors (the element) represent hyperlinks, resources a person can navigate to or download in a browser. If you want to allow your user to move to a new page or download a file, then use an anchor.
An input () represents a data field: so some user data you mean to send to server. There are several input types related to buttons:
Each of them has a meaning, for example "file" is used to upload a file, "reset" clears a form, and "submit" sends the data to the server. Check W3 reference on MDN or on W3Schools.
The button () element is quite versatile:
you can nest elements within a button, such as images, paragraphs, or
headers;
buttons can also contain ::before and ::after pseudo-elements;
buttons support the disabled attribute. This makes it easy to turn
them on and off.
Again, check W3 reference for tag on MDN or on W3Schools.
GameO7er
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answered Nov 8 '14 at 14:31
AttilioAttilio
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Quoting the Forms Page in the HTML manual:
Buttons created with the BUTTON element function just like buttons created with the INPUT element, but they offer richer rendering possibilities: the BUTTON element may have content. For example, a BUTTON element that contains an image functions like and may resemble an INPUT element whose type is set to "image", but the BUTTON element type allows content.
answered Jan 22 '09 at 13:19
gimelgimel
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Use button from input element if you want to create button in a form. And use button tag if you want to create button for an action.
answered Mar 1 '11 at 8:17
nickomarsanickomarsa
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For client side scripting. has no function in HTML.
– iGEL
Mar 3 '12 at 13:40
12
by default behaves like if it had a "type="submit" attribute
can be used without a form as well as in forms.
text or html content allowed
css pseudo elements allowed (like :before)
tag name is usually unique to a single form
vs.
type should be set to 'submit' to behave as a submitting element
can only be used in forms.
only text content allowed
no css pseudo elements
same tag name as most of the forms elements (inputs)
--
in modern browsers, both elements are easily styleable with css but in most cases, button element is preferred as you can style more with inner html and pseudo elements
answered Oct 31 '17 at 8:46
Sergey SklyarSergey Sklyar
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As far as CSS styling is concerned the Example is better as it gives you the ability to use CSS :before and :after pseudo classes which can help.
Due to the visually rendering different to an or when styled with classes in certain situations I avoid them.
It's very worth noting the current top answer was written in 2009. IE6 isn't a concern now days so Wins styling consistency in my eyes comes out on top.
answered Jul 30 '15 at 4:33
jnowlandjnowland
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There is a big difference if you are using jQuery. jQuery is aware of more events on inputs than it does on buttons. On buttons, jQuery is only aware of 'click' events. On inputs, jQuery is aware of 'click', 'focus', and 'blur' events.
You could always bind events to your buttons as needed, but just be aware that the events that jQuery automatically is aware of are different. For example, if you created a function that was executed whenever there was a 'focusin' event on your page, an input would trigger the function but a button would not.
answered Dec 21 '15 at 17:12
MattCMattC
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re: KjetilNordin - We had an application that was aware of any focusin events on a page, and one occurred, an action took place. So if using an input, you could watch all of the elements for a single event. Not saying you should, but you could. The risk is that someone changes the input to a button, and then the focusin does not occur, and then your action does not occur, and then your app goes boom. That's what happened to us. :)
– MattC
May 2 '16 at 18:08
1
use focus events when an element is currently targeted via mouse/keyboard. they show the user where they are in the document.
– albert
May 16 '17 at 17:14
8
I just want to add something to the rest of the answers here. Input elements are considered empty or void elements (other empty elements are area , base , br , col , hr , img , input , link , meta , and param. You can also check here), meaning they cannot have any content. In addition to not having any content, empty elements cannot have any pseudo-elements like ::after and ::before, which I consider a major drawback.
answered Jun 19 '17 at 10:20
Roumelis GeorgeRoumelis George
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Although this is a very old question and might not be relevant anymore, please keep in mind that most of the problems that the tag used to have don't exist anymore and therefore is highly advisable to use it.
In case you cannot do so for various reasons, just keep in mind to add the attribute role=”button” in your tag as of accessibility.
This article is quite informative: https://www.deque.com/blog/accessible-aria-buttons/
answered Mar 11 '20 at 14:54
Nasia MakrygianniNasia Makrygianni
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is flexible in that it can contain HTML. Moreover, it is much easier to style using CSS, and the styling actually gets applied across all browsers. However, there are some drawbacks regarding Internet Explorer (Eww! IE!). Internet Explorer does not detect the value attribute properly, using the tag's content as the value. All of the values in a form are sent to the server-side, regardless of whether or not the button is clicked. This makes using it as a tricky and a pain.
on the other hand doesn't have any value or detection issues, but you can't, however, add HTML like you can with . It's also harder to style, and the styling doesn't always respond well across all browsers. Hope this helped.
answered Jun 27 '14 at 22:51
Moh S.Moh S.
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in addition, one of the differences can come from provider of the library, and what they code. for example here i'm using cordova platform in combination with mobile angular ui, and while input/div/etc tags work well with ng-click, the button can cause Visual Studio debugger to crash, surely by differences, that the programmer caused; note that MattC answer point to the same issue, the jQuery is just a lib, and the provider didn't think of some functionality on one element, that s/he provides on another. so when you are using a library, you may face an issue with one element, which you won't face with another. and simply the popular one like input, will mostly be the fixed one, just because it's more popular.
answered Jan 2 '16 at 8:23
deadManNdeadManN
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