DataList Tag in HTML 5

Introduction
 
A <datalist> tag can be used to create a simple auto-complete feature for a webpage.
 
<datalist> is the newly defined HTML tag that came with the HTML 5 specification. By using this <datalist> tag we can define a list of data and then we can bind it with an <input> tag.
 
A <datalist> tag specifies a list of predefined options for an <input> element. After binding it the user will see a drop down list in which all the predefined options will be there for the input. When the user types a character or string then the user will automatically get the data depending on the input string or character.
 
The main feature of this <datalist> tag is to auto-complete the <input> element.
 
Example
 
Suppose we have a TextBox for the country.

<input type="text" list="countries" name="country" />  

In the preceding input element we are using the list attribute and we are passing the list of countries. so we will define a list of countries using the <datalist> tag as given below:

Complete Example

Output
 
The output of the code above is given below:

1. When the page is loaded it will initially look like:
   
   
   
2. When a character or string is typed into the input element then:
   
   
   

Browser Compatibility
 
The following are the browser versions that fully supports <datalist>: