HTML Validation

Bad value “virtual” for attribute “wrap” on element “textarea”.

About This HTML Issue

Invalid value “virtual” was used for the wrap attribute on a textarea.

The wrap attribute controls how the browser wraps text when submitting a form. It accepts only two keyword values:

soft (default): Lines are not hard-wrapped on submission; the server receives unwrapped lines.
hard: The browser inserts CRLFs at wrap boundaries on submission; you must also set cols for hard to be valid.

virtual was a non-standard value used by some legacy browsers and is not allowed by the HTML Standard or the W3C validator. Remove wrap entirely to get soft wrapping, or set it to soft/hard as needed. If you choose hard, include a sensible cols value. You can also control visual wrapping with CSS like white-space if needed.

HTML Examples

Example: Reproduces the validator error

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Textarea Wrap Error</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
    <label for="msg">Message</label>
    <textarea id="msg" name="msg" wrap="virtual"></textarea>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Example: Valid fixes

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Textarea Wrap Fix</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
    <label for="msg-soft">Message (soft)</label>
    <textarea id="msg-soft" name="msg" wrap="soft"></textarea>

    <label for="msg-hard">Message (hard)</label>
    <textarea id="msg-hard" name="msg" wrap="hard" cols="40" rows="5"></textarea>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Learn more:

→ <textarea>: The Textarea element - wrap attribute

Last reviewed: August 19, 2025

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Related W3C Validator Issues

Bad value “street-address” for attribute “autocomplete” on element “input”: The autofill field name “street-address” is not allowed in this context.

The value street-address cannot be used for attribute autocomplete on an <input> element. As this kind of autofill is oriented for multi-line inputs (as in the expected format for addresses), consider using a <textarea> element instead, like in this example:

<textarea name="address" autocomplete="street-address"></textarea>

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>

The element “textarea” must not appear as a descendant of the “a” element.

Attribute “type” not allowed on element “textarea” at this point.

Bad value “” for attribute “rows” on element “textarea”: The empty string is not a valid positive integer.

The attribute rows on a textarea element, when present, must be a positive integer.

The <textarea> HTML element represents a multi-line plain-text editing control, useful when you want to allow users to enter a sizeable amount of free-form text, for example a comment on a review or feedback form. Its attributes rows and cols allow to define the dimensions of the text area by respectively specifying the numbers of rows and columns.

Example:

<textarea name="comments" rows="5" cols="25">
  It all works great!
</textarea>

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