Which HTML elements can receive focus?

Question

There isn't a definite list, it's up to the browser. The only standard we have is DOM Level 2 HTML, according to which the only elements that have a focus() method are HTMLInputElement, HTMLSelectElement, HTMLTextAreaElement and HTMLAnchorElement. This notably omits HTMLButtonElement and HTMLAreaElement.

Today's browsers define focus() on HTMLElement, but an element won't actually take focus unless it's one of:

• HTMLAnchorElement/HTMLAreaElement with an href
• HTMLInputElement/HTMLSelectElement/HTMLTextAreaElement/HTMLButtonElement but not with disabled (IE actually gives you an error if you try), and file uploads have unusual behaviour for security reasons
• HTMLIFrameElement (though focusing it doesn't do anything useful). Other embedding elements also, maybe, I haven't tested them all.
• Any element with a tabindex

There are likely to be other subtle exceptions and additions to this behaviour depending on browser.

Here I have a CSS-selector based on bobince's answer to select any focusable HTML element:

  a[href]:not([tabindex='-1']),
  area[href]:not([tabindex='-1']),
  input:not([disabled]):not([tabindex='-1']),
  select:not([disabled]):not([tabindex='-1']),
  textarea:not([disabled]):not([tabindex='-1']),
  button:not([disabled]):not([tabindex='-1']),
  iframe:not([tabindex='-1']),
  [tabindex]:not([tabindex='-1']),
  [contentEditable=true]:not([tabindex='-1'])
  {
      /* your CSS for focusable elements goes here */
  }

or a little more beautiful in SASS:

a[href],
area[href],
input:not([disabled]),
select:not([disabled]),
textarea:not([disabled]),
button:not([disabled]),
iframe,
[tabindex],
[contentEditable=true]
{
    &:not([tabindex='-1'])
    {
        /* your SCSS for focusable elements goes here */
    }
}

I've added it as an answer, because that was, what I was looking for, when Google redirected me to this Stackoverflow question.

EDIT: There is one more selector, which is focusable:

[contentEditable=true]

However, this is used very rarely.

$focusable:
  'a[href]',
  'area[href]',
  'button',
  'details',
  'input',
  'iframe',
  'select',
  'textarea',

  // these are actually case sensitive but i'm not listing out all the possible variants
  '[contentEditable=""]',
  '[contentEditable="true"]',
  '[contentEditable="TRUE"]',

  '[tabindex]:not([tabindex^="-"])',
  ':not([disabled])';

I'm creating a SCSS list of all focusable elements and I thought this might help someone due to this question's Google rank.

A few things to note:

• I changed :not([tabindex="-1"]) to :not([tabindex^="-"]) because it's perfectly plausible to generate -2 somehow. Better safe than sorry right?
• Adding :not([tabindex^="-"]) to all the other focusable selectors is completely pointless. When using [tabindex]:not([tabindex^="-"]) it already includes all elements that you'd be negating with :not!
• I included :not([disabled]) because disabled elements can never be focusable. So again it's useless to add it to every single element.

The ally.js accessibility library provides an unofficial, test-based list here:

https://allyjs.io/data-tables/focusable.html

(NB: Their page doesn't say how often tests were performed.)