Why does HTML think “chucknorris” is a color?

Question

How come certain random strings produce colors when entered as background colors in HTML? For example:

Answer 1

The rules for parsing colors on legacy attributes involves additional steps than those mentioned in existing answers. The truncate component to 2 digits part is described as:

1. Discard all characters except the last 8
2. Discard leading zeros one by one as long as all components have a leading zero
3. Discard all characters except the first 2

Some examples:

oooFoooFoooF
000F 000F 000F                <- replace, pad and chunk
0F 0F 0F                      <- leading zeros truncated
0F 0F 0F                      <- truncated to 2 characters from right

oooFooFFoFFF
000F 00FF 0FFF                <- replace, pad and chunk
00F 0FF FFF                   <- leading zeros truncated
00 0F FF                      <- truncated to 2 characters from right

ABCooooooABCooooooABCoooooo
ABC000000 ABC000000 ABC000000 <- replace, pad and chunk
BC000000 BC000000 BC000000    <- truncated to 8 characters from left
BC BC BC                      <- truncated to 2 characters from right

AoCooooooAoCooooooAoCoooooo
A0C000000 A0C000000 A0C000000 <- replace, pad and chunk
0C000000 0C000000 0C000000    <- truncated to 8 characters from left
C000000 C000000 C000000       <- leading zeros truncated
C0 C0 C0                      <- truncated to 2 characters from right

Below is a partial implementation of the algorithm. It does not handle errors or cases where the user enters a valid color.

function parseColor(input) {
  // todo: return error if input is ""
  input = input.trim();
  // todo: return error if input is "transparent"
  // todo: return corresponding #rrggbb if input is a named color
  // todo: return #rrggbb if input matches #rgb
  // todo: replace unicode code points greater than U+FFFF with 00
  if (input.length > 128) {
    input = input.slice(0, 128);
  }
  if (input.charAt(0) === "#") {
    input = input.slice(1);
  }
  input = input.replace(/[^0-9A-Fa-f]/g, "0");
  while (input.length === 0 || input.length % 3 > 0) {
    input += "0";
  }
  var r = input.slice(0, input.length / 3);
  var g = input.slice(input.length / 3, input.length * 2 / 3);
  var b = input.slice(input.length * 2 / 3);
  if (r.length > 8) {
    r = r.slice(-8);
    g = g.slice(-8);
    b = b.slice(-8);
  }
  while (r.length > 2 && r.charAt(0) === "0" && g.charAt(0) === "0" && b.charAt(0) === "0") {
    r = r.slice(1);
    g = g.slice(1);
    b = b.slice(1);
  }
  if (r.length > 2) {
    r = r.slice(0, 2);
    g = g.slice(0, 2);
    b = b.slice(0, 2);
  }
  return "#" + r.padStart(2, "0") + g.padStart(2, "0") + b.padStart(2, "0");
}

$(function() {
  $("#input").on("change", function() {
    var input = $(this).val();
    var color = parseColor(input);
    var $cells = $("#result tbody td");
    $cells.eq(0).attr("bgcolor", input);
    $cells.eq(1).attr("bgcolor", color);

    var color1 = $cells.eq(0).css("background-color");
    var color2 = $cells.eq(1).css("background-color");
    $cells.eq(2).empty().append("bgcolor: " + input, "
", "getComputedStyle: " + color1);
    $cells.eq(3).empty().append("bgcolor: " + color, "
", "getComputedStyle: " + color2);
  });
});

body { font: medium monospace; }
input { width: 20em; }
table { table-layout: fixed; width: 100%; }

  

    

      
Left Color
      
Right Color