HTML datapagesize Attribute

The obsolete datapagesize attribute was a Microsoft Internet Explorer extension used with its data-binding system to specify how many records from a bound data source should be displayed at one time.

Obsolete Attribute: The datapagesize attribute was a proprietary Internet Explorer feature and is not part of modern HTML. Use current application logic, JavaScript, or server-side processing when data needs to be divided into pages.

Historical Syntax

The datapagesize attribute accepted a number representing how many records from the bound data source should appear on a page:

<table datasrc="#example-data" datapagesize="10">
  ...
</table>

In this example, Internet Explorer's data-binding system could display the bound records in groups of 10 rather than displaying the entire data set at once.

Historical Elements

The proprietary datapagesize attribute was associated with elements that could display repeated records through Internet Explorer's data-binding features.

Element Type	Historical Purpose
Data-bound elements	Specified the number of records that Internet Explorer should display as one page of bound data.

Historical Use

Internet Explorer's proprietary data-binding system could connect HTML elements to a data source and repeat content for records contained in that source. When a data source contained many records, displaying all of them at once was not always desirable.

The datapagesize attribute allowed an author to specify the number of records included in each displayed group. For example, a value of 10 could divide the bound records into pages containing up to 10 records each.

The attribute worked as part of Microsoft's larger data-binding system rather than as an independent HTML pagination feature.

Why It Became Obsolete

The datapagesize attribute was not part of standard HTML and depended on proprietary Internet Explorer data-binding technology. Other browsers could not be expected to provide the same behavior.

Modern websites and applications handle pagination through application logic. Data can be divided into pages before the HTML is generated on the server, or JavaScript can control which records are retrieved and displayed in the browser.

Modern Alternative

There is no direct modern HTML replacement for datapagesize. Pagination is now implemented according to how the application retrieves and displays its data.

A server-side application can return only the records required for the requested page. For example, a page might display 10 products at a time and provide ordinary links for navigating to additional results:

<nav aria-label="Results pages">
  <a href="?page=1">1</a>
  <a href="?page=2">2</a>
  <a href="?page=3">3</a>
</nav>

JavaScript applications can also request or display a limited number of records at a time and update the page when the user selects another group of results.

The important difference is that modern HTML describes the content and navigation controls, while the application determines which records belong to each page. HTML no longer uses an attribute such as datapagesize to perform this data-binding operation.

Legacy Browser Support

The datapagesize attribute was associated with Microsoft Internet Explorer's proprietary data-binding system and was not a standard cross-browser HTML feature.

Modern browsers do not provide the old Internet Explorer data-binding environment required for datapagesize. Legacy applications that depend on this feature need to implement pagination using current application technologies.

For additional information about historical browser compatibility, visit Can I Use? . Search for the HTML element or attribute you want to check. Search results can include related HTML features, element attributes, APIs, and other technologies, so select the result that most closely matches the legacy feature you are researching.

Other obsolete proprietary attributes associated with Internet Explorer's data-binding system include:

datafld - Historically used to identify a field or column in a bound data source.
dataformatas - Historically used to indicate how bound data should be interpreted.
datasrc - Historically used to identify the data source associated with an element.

Specifications

The datapagesize attribute was a proprietary Microsoft Internet Explorer extension rather than a standard HTML attribute. It should not be used in modern webpages. Pagination and data display should instead be handled using standard HTML together with current client-side or server-side technologies.

HTML datapagesize Attribute