The <a href>
attribute refers to a destination provided by a link. The a
(anchor) tag is dead without the <href>
attribute.
How to use the <a href> tag
Sometimes in your workflow, you don’t want a live link or you won’t know the link destination yet. In this case, it’s useful to set the href
attribute to "#"
to create a dead link.
The href
attribute can be used to link to local files or files on the internet.
For instance:
<html>
<head>
<title>Href Attribute Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Href Attribute Example</h1>
<p>
<a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/contribute/">The freeCodeCamp Contribution Page</a> shows you how and where you can contribute to freeCodeCamp's community and growth.
</p>
</h1>
</body>
</html>
The <a href>
attribute is supported by all browsers.
More HTML attributes:
hreflang
: Specifies the language of the linked resource.
target
: Specifies the context in which the linked resource will open.
title
: Defines the title of a link, which appears to the user as a tooltip.
Examples
<a href="#">This is a dead link</a>
<a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org">This is a live link to freeCodeCamp</a>
<a href="https://html.com/attributes/a-href/">more with a href attribute</a>
In-page anchors
It’s also possible to set an anchor to certain place of the page. To do this you should first place a tab at location on the page with tag and necessary attribute “name” with any keyword description in it, like this:
<a name="top"></a>
Any description between tags is not required. After that you can place a link leading to this anchor at any palce on same page. To do this you should use tag with necessary attribute “href” with symbol # (sharp) and key-word description of the anchor, like this:
<a href="#top">Go to Top</a>
Image Links
The <a href="#">
may also be applied to images and other HTML elements.
Example
<a href="#"><img itemprop="image" style="height: 90px;" src="http://www.chatbot.chat/assets/images/header-bg_y.jpg" alt="picture"> </a>
Some more examples of href
<base href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/a-href/">This gives a base url for all further urls on the page</a>
<link href="style.css">This is a live link to an external stylesheet</a>
What else can you do with <a href>?
More customization! Let's see a specific use case:
A mailto link is a kind of hyperlink (<a href=""></a>
) with special parameters that lets you specify additional recipients, a subject line, and/or a body text.
The basic syntax with a recipient is:
<a href="mailto:friend@something.com">Some text</a>
Adding a subject to that mail:
If you want to add a specific subject to that mail, be careful to add %20
or +
everywhere there’s a space in the subject line. An easy way to ensure that it is properly formatted is to use a URL Decoder / Encoder.
Adding body text:
Similarly, you can add a specific message in the body portion of the email: Again, spaces have to be replaced by %20
or +
. After the subject paramater, any additional parameter must be preceded by &
Example: Say you want users to send an email to their friends about their progress at Free Code Camp:
Address: empty
Subject: Great news
Body: I am becoming a developer
Your html link now:
<a href="mailto:?subject=Great%20news&body=I%20am%20becoming%20a%20developer">Send mail!</a>
Here, we’ve left mailto empty (mailto:?). This will open the user’s email client and the user will add the recipient address themselves.
Adding more recipients:
In the same manner, you can add CC and bcc parameters. Seperate each address by a comma!
Additional parameters must be preceded by &
.
<a href="mailto:firstfriend@something.com?subject=Great%20news&cc=secondfriend@something.com,thirdfriend@something.com&bcc=fourthfriend@something.com">Send mail!</a>