HTML Validation

Bad value “” for attribute “maxlength” on element “input”: The empty string is not a valid non-negative integer.

About This HTML Issue

Remove the empty maxlength value and provide a non-negative integer or omit the attribute entirely.

Explanation

The maxlength attribute on an input element must be a valid non-negative integer per the HTML specification. An empty string ("") is invalid and triggers the validator error.

Valid: a decimal integer like 0, 10, 255.
Invalid: empty string, negative numbers, non-numeric strings, or whitespace.
If no maximum length is needed, omit maxlength instead of leaving it empty.
Note that maxlength applies to text-entry controls such as type="text", search, url, tel, email, and password. For other types (e.g., number, date), maxlength is ignored and should not be used.

Examples

Correct: set an explicit maximum

<input type="text" name="username" maxlength="20">

Correct: no maximum, omit the attribute

<input type="text" name="comment">

Incorrect: empty string (validator error)

<input type="text" name="username" maxlength="">

Learn more:

Last reviewed: August 11, 2025

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Reading time

1 min read

Category

HTML Validation

Engine

W3C Validator

Last reviewed

August 11, 2025

Resources

Related W3C Validator Issues

Attribute “maxlength” is only allowed when the input type is “email”, “password”, “search”, “tel”, “text”, or “url”.

Bad value “” for attribute “maxlength” on element “textarea”: The empty string is not a valid non-negative integer.

Remove the empty maxlength and provide a valid non‑negative integer, or omit maxlength entirely.

The maxlength attribute limits the number of characters a user can enter. It must be a valid non-negative integer (0, 1, 2, …). An empty string, whitespace, or non-numeric value fails validation. When maxlength is omitted, the length is unlimited. When set to 0, no characters can be entered. The value applies to the textarea element itself, not its content.

Common fixes:

Set maxlength to a concrete number like 200.
If you don’t need a limit, remove the attribute.
Ensure templating doesn’t output an empty attribute (e.g., maxlength="").

HTML Examples

Invalid example (reproduces the validator error)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Invalid maxlength</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
    <label for="msg">Message</label>
    <textarea id="msg" name="message" maxlength=""></textarea>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Fixed example (valid integer or omit attribute)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Valid maxlength</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
    <label for="msg">Message (max 200 chars)</label>
    <textarea id="msg" name="message" maxlength="200"></textarea>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Bad value “X aria-required=” for attribute “maxlength” on element “input”: Expected a digit but saw “ ” instead.

The value of the maxlength attribute contains invalid characters because it is incorrectly combined with another attribute.

In HTML, the maxlength attribute for an input element should contain only a non-negative integer value, which specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in the input. The aria-required attribute must be a separate attribute in the tag.

Correct usage separates each attribute and assigns the appropriate value using quotation marks for each. For example, maxlength="200" and aria-required="true" must be distinct and not combined.

Incorrect:

<input type="text" name="nome" id="nome" maxlength="200 aria-required="true">

Correct:

<input type="text" name="nome" id="nome" maxlength="200" aria-required="true">

This valid example uses maxlength="200" for character limit and adds aria-required="true" to improve accessibility for assistive technologies.

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