# phpman > perldoc > HTML::FillInForm
## NAME
[HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown) - Populates HTML Forms with data.
## VERSION
version 2.22
## SYNOPSIS
Fill HTML form with data.
$output = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill( \$html, $q );
$output = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill( \@html, [$q1,$q2] );
$output = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill( \*HTML, \%data );
$output = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill( 't.html', [\%data1,%data2] );
The HTML can be provided as a scalarref, arrayref, filehandle or file. The data can come from
one or more hashrefs, or objects which support a param() method, like CGI.pm, [Apache::Request](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Apache%3A%3ARequest/markdown),
etc.
## DESCRIPTION
This module fills in an HTML form with data from a Perl data structure, allowing you to keep the
HTML and Perl separate.
Here are two common use cases:
1. A user submits an HTML form without filling out a required field. You want to redisplay the
form with all the previous data in it, to make it easy for the user to see and correct the
error.
2. You have just retrieved a record from a database and need to display it in an HTML form.
fill
The basic syntax is seen above the Synopsis. There are a few additional options.
### Options
target => 'form1'
Suppose you have multiple forms in a html file and only want to fill in one.
$output = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill(\$html, $q, target => 'form1');
This will fill in only the form inside
fill_password => 0
Passwords are filled in by default. To disable:
fill_password => 0
ignore_fields => []
To disable the filling of some fields:
ignore_fields => ['prev','next']
disable_fields => []
To disable fields from being edited:
disable_fields => [ 'uid', 'gid' ]
invalid_fields => []
To mark fields as being invalid (CSS class set to "invalid" or whatever you set invalid_class
to):
invalid_fields => [ 'uid', 'gid' ]
invalid_class => "invalid"
The CSS class which will be used to mark fields invalid. Defaults to "invalid".
clear_absent_checkboxes => 0
Absent fields are not cleared or in any way changed. This is not what you want when you deal
with checkboxes which are not sent by browser at all when cleared by user.
To remove "checked" attribute from checkboxes and radio buttons and attribute "selected" from
options of select lists for which there's no data:
clear_absent_checkboxes => 1
### File Upload fields
File upload fields cannot be supported directly. Workarounds include asking the user to
re-attach any file uploads or fancy server-side storage and referencing. You are on your own.
### Clearing Fields
Fields are cleared if you set their value to an empty string or empty arrayref but not undef:
# this will leave the form element foo untouched
[HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill(\$html, { foo => undef });
# this will set clear the form element foo
[HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill(\$html, { foo => "" });
It has been suggested to add a option to change the behavior so that undef values will clear the
form elements. Patches welcome.
You can also use "clear_absent_checkboxes" option to clear checkboxes, radio buttons and selects
without corresponding keys in the data:
# this will set clear the form element foo (and all others except
# bar)
[HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->fill(\$html, { bar => 123 },
clear_absent_checkboxes => 1);
## Old syntax
You probably need to read no further. The remaining docs concern the 1.x era syntax, which is
still supported.
new
Call "new()" to create a new FillInForm object:
$fif = [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->new;
$fif->fill(...);
In theory, there is a slight performance benefit to calling "new()" before "fill()" if you make
multiple calls to "fill()" before you destroy the object. Benchmark before optimizing.
fill ( old syntax )
Instead of having your HTML and data types auto-detected, you can declare them explicitly in
your call to "fill()":
HTML source options:
arrayref => @html
scalarref => $html
file => \*HTML
file => 't.html'
Fill Data options:
fobject => $data_obj # with param() method
fdat => \%data
Additional methods are also available:
fill_file(\*HTML,...);
fill_file('t.html',...);
fill_arrayref(\@html,...);
fill_scalarref(\$html,...);
## USING AN ALTERNATE PARSER
It's possible to use an alternate parser to [HTML::Parser](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AParser/markdown) if the alternate provides a
sufficiently compatible interface. For example, when a Pure Perl implementation of [HTML::Parser](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AParser/markdown)
appears, it could be used for portability. The syntax is simply to provide a "parser_class" to
### new
[HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown)->new( parser_class => '[MyAlternate::Parser](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/MyAlternate%3A%3AParser/markdown)' );
## CALLING FROM OTHER MODULES
### [Apache::PageKit](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Apache%3A%3APageKit/markdown)
To use [HTML::FillInForm](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/HTML%3A%3AFillInForm/markdown) in [Apache::PageKit](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Apache%3A%3APageKit/markdown) is easy. It is automatically called for any page that
includes a