Using the Textarea Element for Multi-Line Inputfor Drupal 11 , 10 , 9 , and 8

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11.x , 10.x , 9.x , 8.x

The moment a user needs to write more than a short phrase — a comment, a description, a message body — a single-line textfield stops being the right tool. textarea is Drupal's multi-line equivalent, and it comes with its own small set of properties worth knowing well.

What you'll learn in this lesson

  • The basic textarea definition and its sizing properties
  • Why textarea has no #maxlength by default, and how to add one yourself
  • When to reach for a full text-format-aware field instead of a plain textarea

A basic textarea

$form['message'] = [
  '#type' => 'textarea',
  '#title' => $this->t('Message'),
  '#rows' => 5,
  '#description' => $this->t('Tell us what you need help with.'),
];

#rows sets the visible height in text lines — purely cosmetic, exactly like #size on a textfield, and doesn't limit how much a user can actually type. There's no #cols equivalent in modern Drupal forms; width is handled by CSS, not a render property.

Enforcing a length limit yourself

$form['message']['#maxlength'] = 1000;

Unlike textfield, a plain textarea doesn't automatically get client-side character-count enforcement from #maxlength in every Drupal version — check your target version's behavior, and back it up with a real server-side check in validateForm() if the limit genuinely matters (for example, matching a database column's storage limit). Never rely on client-side enforcement alone for anything you actually need to be true.

When textarea isn't enough: text-format-aware fields

A plain textarea stores exactly what the user typed — no HTML, no formatting, no filtering. The moment you need rich text with a format selector and Drupal's text-filtering pipeline (the same system that powers a node body field), reach for #type => 'text_format' instead, which pairs a textarea with a format dropdown and runs the result through whichever text format the user selected.

Don't confuse plain and formatted text: a plain textarea value is never run through Drupal's text filter system — if you print it back out later, you're responsible for your own sanitization (typically via Html::escape() for plain text, never by trusting it as safe markup). Only text_format fields carry filtering built in.

Quick check: you need a comment field that should support basic bold/italic formatting, filtered safely. Plain textarea or text_format? (text_format — it pairs the textarea with a format selector and runs the saved value through Drupal's text-filtering pipeline, which is exactly the safety net formatted content needs.)

Key takeaways

  • #rows controls visible height only — it doesn't limit input length.
  • Don't trust client-side #maxlength alone on a textarea — back genuinely important limits with server-side validation.
  • Use plain textarea for unformatted text you'll escape yourself; use text_format when you need Drupal's filtering pipeline for rich content.

Coming up next

Text input covers free-form entry. Next up is select — the element for when you want to constrain the user to a fixed, known set of choices.