DateType Field
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Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 7.2 (the current stable version).
A field that allows the user to modify date information via a variety of different HTML elements.
This field can be rendered in a variety of different ways via the widget option and can understand a number of different input formats via the input option.
Underlying Data Type | can be DateTime , string, timestamp, or array (see the input option) |
Rendered as | single text box or three select fields |
Parent type | FormType |
Class | DateType |
Tip
The full list of options defined and inherited by this form type is available running this command in your app:
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# replace 'FooType' by the class name of your form type
$ php bin/console debug:form FooType
Basic Usage
This field type is highly configurable. The most important options
are input
and widget
.
Suppose that you have a publishedAt
field whose underlying date is a
DateTime
object. The following configures the date
type for that
field as three different choice fields:
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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\DateType;
// ...
$builder->add('publishedAt', DateType::class, [
'widget' => 'choice',
]);
If your underlying date is not a DateTime
object (e.g. it's a Unix
timestamp or a DateTimeImmutable
object), configure the input option:
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$builder->add('publishedAt', DateType::class, [
'widget' => 'choice',
'input' => 'datetime_immutable'
]);
Rendering a single HTML5 Text Box
For a better user experience, you may want to render a single text field and use
some kind of "date picker" to help your user fill in the right format. To do that,
use the single_text
widget:
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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\DateType;
// ...
$builder->add('publishedAt', DateType::class, [
// renders it as a single text box
'widget' => 'single_text',
]);
This will render as an input type="date"
HTML5 field, which means that some -
but not all - browsers will add nice date picker functionality to the field. If you
want to be absolutely sure that every user has a consistent date picker, use an
external JavaScript library.
For example, suppose you want to use the Bootstrap Datepicker library. First, make the following changes:
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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\DateType;
// ...
$builder->add('publishedAt', DateType::class, [
'widget' => 'single_text',
// prevents rendering it as type="date", to avoid HTML5 date pickers
'html5' => false,
// adds a class that can be selected in JavaScript
'attr' => ['class' => 'js-datepicker'],
]);
Then, add the following JavaScript code in your template to initialize the date picker:
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<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
// you may need to change this code if you are not using Bootstrap Datepicker
$('.js-datepicker').datepicker({
format: 'yyyy-mm-dd'
});
});
</script>
This format
key tells the date picker to use the date format that Symfony expects.
This can be tricky: if the date picker is misconfigured, Symfony won't understand
the format and will throw a validation error. You can also configure the format
that Symfony should expect via the format option.
Caution
The string used by a JavaScript date picker to describe its format (e.g. yyyy-mm-dd
)
may not match the string that Symfony uses (e.g. yyyy-MM-dd
). This is because
different libraries use different formatting rules to describe the date format.
Be aware of this - it can be tricky to make the formats truly match!
Field Options
days
type: array
default: 1 to 31
List of days available to the day field type. This option is only relevant
when the widget
option is set to choice
:
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'days' => range(1,31)
placeholder
type: string
| array
If your widget option is set to choice
, then this field will be represented
as a series of select
boxes. When the placeholder value is a string,
it will be used as the blank value of all select boxes:
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$builder->add('dueDate', DateType::class, [
'placeholder' => 'Select a value',
]);
Alternatively, you can use an array that configures different placeholder values for the year, month and day fields:
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$builder->add('dueDate', DateType::class, [
'placeholder' => [
'year' => 'Year', 'month' => 'Month', 'day' => 'Day',
],
]);
format
type: integer
or string
default: IntlDateFormatter::MEDIUM
(or yyyy-MM-dd
if widget is single_text
)
Option passed to the IntlDateFormatter
class, used to transform user
input into the proper format. This is critical when the widget option
is set to single_text
and will define how the user will input the data.
By default, the format is determined based on the current user locale: meaning
that the expected format will be different for different users. You can
override it by passing the format as a string.
For more information on valid formats, see Date/Time Format Syntax:
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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\DateType;
// ...
$builder->add('dateCreated', DateType::class, [
'widget' => 'single_text',
// this is actually the default format for single_text
'format' => 'yyyy-MM-dd',
]);
Note
If you want your field to be rendered as an HTML5 "date" field, you
have to use a single_text
widget with the yyyy-MM-dd
format
(the RFC 3339 format) which is the default value if you use the
single_text
widget.
4.3
Using the format
option when the html5
option is enabled is deprecated
since Symfony 4.3.
html5
type: boolean
default: true
If this is set to true
(the default), it'll use the HTML5 type (date, time
or datetime-local) to render the field. When set to false
, it'll use the text type.
This is useful when you want to use a custom JavaScript datepicker, which often requires a text type instead of an HTML5 type.
input
type: string
default: datetime
The format of the input data - i.e. the format that the date is stored on your underlying object. Valid values are:
string
(e.g.2011-06-05
)datetime
(aDateTime
object)datetime_immutable
(aDateTimeImmutable
object)array
(e.g.['year' => 2011, 'month' => 06, 'day' => 05]
)timestamp
(e.g.1307232000
)
The value that comes back from the form will also be normalized back into this format.
Caution
If timestamp
is used, DateType
is limited to dates between
Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 UTC and Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 UTC on 32bit
systems. This is due to an integer overflow bug in 32bit systems known as the Year 2038 problem.
input_format
type: string
default: Y-m-d
4.3
The input_format
option was introduced in Symfony 4.3.
If the input
option is set to string
, this option specifies the format
of the date. This must be a valid PHP date format.
model_timezone
type: string
default: system default timezone
Timezone that the input data is stored in. This must be one of the PHP supported timezones.
months
type: array
default: 1 to 12
List of months available to the month field type. This option is only relevant
when the widget
option is set to choice
.
view_timezone
type: string
default: system default timezone
Timezone for how the data should be shown to the user (and therefore also the data that the user submits). This must be one of the PHP supported timezones.
widget
type: string
default: choice
The basic way in which this field should be rendered. Can be one of the following:
years
type: array
default: five years before to five years after the
current year
List of years available to the year field type. This option is only relevant
when the widget
option is set to choice
.
Overridden Options
choice_translation_domain
type: string
, boolean
or null
default: false
This option determines if the choice values should be translated and in which translation domain.
The values of the choice_translation_domain
option can be true
(reuse the current
translation domain), false
(disable translation), null
(uses the parent translation
domain or the default domain) or a string which represents the exact translation
domain to use.
compound
type: boolean
default: false
This option specifies whether the type contains child types or not. This option is managed internally for built-in types, so there is no need to configure it explicitly.
data_class
type: string
default: null
The internal normalized representation of this type is an array, not a \DateTime
object. Therefore, the data_class
option is initialized to null
to avoid
the FormType
object from initializing it to \DateTime
.
error_bubbling
default: false
Inherited Options
These options inherit from the FormType:
attr
type: array
default: []
If you want to add extra attributes to an HTML field representation
you can use the attr
option. It's an associative array with HTML attributes
as keys. This can be useful when you need to set a custom class for some widget:
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$builder->add('body', TextareaType::class, [
'attr' => ['class' => 'tinymce'],
]);
See also
Use the row_attr
option if you want to add these attributes to
the form type row element.
data
type: mixed
default: Defaults to field of the underlying structure.
When you create a form, each field initially displays the value of the corresponding property of the form's domain data (e.g. if you bind an object to the form). If you want to override this initial value for the form or an individual field, you can set it in the data option:
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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\HiddenType;
// ...
$builder->add('token', HiddenType::class, [
'data' => 'abcdef',
]);
Caution
The data
option always overrides the value taken from the domain data
(object) when rendering. This means the object value is also overridden when
the form edits an already persisted object, causing it to lose its
persisted value when the form is submitted.
disabled
type: boolean
default: false
If you don't want a user to modify the value of a field, you can set the disabled option to true. Any submitted value will be ignored.
error_mapping
type: array
default: []
This option allows you to modify the target of a validation error.
Imagine you have a custom method named matchingCityAndZipCode()
that validates
whether the city and zip code match. Unfortunately, there is no matchingCityAndZipCode
field in your form, so all that Symfony can do is display the error on top
of the form.
With customized error mapping, you can do better: map the error to the city field so that it displays above it:
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public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults([
'error_mapping' => [
'matchingCityAndZipCode' => 'city',
],
]);
}
Here are the rules for the left and the right side of the mapping:
- The left side contains property paths;
- If the violation is generated on a property or method of a class, its
path is the
propertyName
; - If the violation is generated on an entry of an
array
orArrayAccess
object, the property path is[indexName]
; - You can construct nested property paths by concatenating them, separating
properties by dots. For example:
addresses[work].matchingCityAndZipCode
; - The right side contains the names of fields in the form.
By default, errors for any property that is not mapped will bubble up to the
parent form. You can use the dot (.
) on the left side to map errors of all
unmapped properties to a particular field. For instance, to map all these
errors to the city
field, use:
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$resolver->setDefaults([
'error_mapping' => [
'.' => 'city',
],
]);
help
type: string
default: null
Allows you to define a help message for the form field, which by default is rendered below the field:
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$builder->add('zipCode', null, [
'help' => 'The ZIP/Postal code for your credit card\'s billing address.',
]);
help_attr
type: array
default: []
Sets the HTML attributes for the element used to display the help message of the form field. Its value is an associative array with HTML attribute names as keys. These attributes can also be set in the template:
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{{ form_help(form.name, 'Your name', {
'help_attr': {'class': 'CUSTOM_LABEL_CLASS'}
}) }}
help_html
type: boolean
default: false
By default, the contents of the help
option are escaped before rendering
them in the template. Set this option to true
to not escape them, which is
useful when the help contains HTML elements.
inherit_data
type: boolean
default: false
This option determines if the form will inherit data from its parent form. This can be useful if you have a set of fields that are duplicated across multiple forms. See How to Reduce Code Duplication with "inherit_data".
Caution
When a field has the inherit_data
option set, it uses the data of
the parent form as is. This means that
Data Transformers won't be
applied to that field.
invalid_message
type: string
default: This value is not valid
This is the validation error message that's used if the data entered into this field doesn't make sense (i.e. fails validation).
This might happen, for example, if the user enters a nonsense string into
a TimeType field that cannot be converted
into a real time or if the user enters a string (e.g. apple
) into a
number field.
Normal (business logic) validation (such as when setting a minimum length for a field) should be set using validation messages with your validation rules (reference).
invalid_message_parameters
type: array
default: []
When setting the invalid_message
option, you may need to
include some variables in the string. This can be done by adding placeholders
to that option and including the variables in this option:
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$builder->add('someField', SomeFormType::class, [
// ...
'invalid_message' => 'You entered an invalid value, it should include %num% letters',
'invalid_message_parameters' => ['%num%' => 6],
]);
mapped
type: boolean
default: true
If you wish the field to be ignored when reading or writing to the object,
you can set the mapped
option to false
.
row_attr
type: array
default: []
An associative array of the HTML attributes added to the element which is used to render the form type row:
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$builder->add('body', TextareaType::class, [
'row_attr' => ['class' => 'text-editor', 'id' => '...'],
]);
See also
Use the attr
option if you want to add these attributes to
the form type widget element.
4.3
The row_attr
option was introduced in Symfony 4.3.
Field Variables
Variable | Type | Usage |
---|---|---|
widget |
mixed |
The value of the widget option. |
type |
string |
Only present when widget is single_text and HTML5 is activated,
contains the input type to use (datetime , date or time ). |
date_pattern |
string |
A string with the date format to use. |