Using a Custom Query for the Entities

If you want to create a custom query to use when fetching the entities (e.g. you only want to return some entities, or need to order them), use the query_builder option:

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use App\Entity\User;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
use Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('users', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => User::class,
    'query_builder' => function (EntityRepository $er): QueryBuilder {
        return $er->createQueryBuilder('u')
            ->orderBy('u.username', 'ASC');
    },
    'choice_label' => 'username',
]);

Using Choices

If you already have the exact collection of entities that you want to include in the choice element, just pass them via the choices key.

For example, if you have a $group variable (passed into your form perhaps as a form option) and getUsers() returns a collection of User entities, then you can supply the choices option directly:

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use App\Entity\User;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('users', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => User::class,
    'choices' => $group->getUsers(),
]);

choice_label

type: string, callable or PropertyPath

This is the property that should be used for displaying the entities as text in the HTML element:

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use App\Entity\Category;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('category', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => Category::class,
    'choice_label' => 'displayName',
]);

If left blank, the entity object will be cast to a string and so must have a __toString() method. You can also pass a callback function for more control:

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use App\Entity\Category;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('category', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => Category::class,
    'choice_label' => function (Category $category): string {
        return $category->getDisplayName();
    }
]);

The method is called for each entity in the list and passed to the function. For more details, see the main choice_label documentation.

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use App\Entity\Genre;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('genre', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => Genre::class,
    'choice_label' => 'translations[en].name',
]);

class

type: string required

The class of your entity (e.g. App:Category). This can be a fully-qualified class name (e.g. App\Entity\Category) or the short alias name (as shown prior).

em

type: string | Doctrine\Persistence\ObjectManager default: the default entity manager

If specified, this entity manager will be used to load the choices instead of the default entity manager.

query_builder

type: Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder or a callable default: null

Allows you to create a custom query for your choices. See EntityType Field for an example.

The value of this option can either be a QueryBuilder object, a callable or null (which will load all entities). When using a callable, you will be passed the EntityRepository of the entity as the only argument and should return a QueryBuilder. Returning null in the Closure will result in loading all entities.

choice_name

type: callable, string or PropertyPath default: null

Controls the internal field name of the choice. You normally don't care about this, but in some advanced cases, you might. For example, this "name" becomes the index of the choice views in the template and is used as part of the field name attribute.

This can be a callable or a property path. See choice_label for similar usage. By default, the choice key or an incrementing integer may be used (starting at 0).

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use Symfony\Component\Form\ChoiceList\ChoiceList;

// ...
$builder->add('choices', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choice_name' => ChoiceList::fieldName($this, 'name'),
]);

In the EntityType, this defaults to the id of the entity, if it can be read. Otherwise, it falls back to using auto-incrementing integers.

choice_value

type: callable, string or PropertyPath default: null

Returns the string "value" for each choice, which must be unique across all choices. This is used in the value attribute in HTML and submitted in the POST/PUT requests. You don't normally need to worry about this, but it might be handy when processing an API request (since you can configure the value that will be sent in the API request).

This can be a callable or a property path. By default, the choices are used if they can be casted to strings. Otherwise an incrementing integer is used (starting at 0).

If you pass a callable, it will receive one argument: the choice itself. When using the EntityType Field, the argument will be the entity object for each choice or null in a placeholder is used, which you need to handle:

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'choice_value' => function (?MyOptionEntity $entity): string {
    return $entity ? $entity->getId() : '';
},

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use Symfony\Component\Form\ChoiceList\ChoiceList;

// ...
$builder->add('choices', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choice_value' => ChoiceList::value($this, 'uuid'),
]);

In the EntityType, this is overridden to use the id by default. When the id is used, Doctrine only queries for the objects for the ids that were actually submitted.

choices

type: array | \Traversable default: null

Instead of allowing the class and query_builder options to fetch the entities to include for you, you can pass the choices option directly. See EntityType Field.

data_class

type: string default: null

This option is not used in favor of the class option which is required to query the entities.

choice_attr

type: array, callable, string or PropertyPath default: []

Use this to add additional HTML attributes to each choice. This can be an associative array where the keys match the choice keys and the values are the attributes for each choice, a callable or a property path (just like choice_label).

If an array, the keys of the choices array must be used as keys:

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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\ChoiceType;
// ...

$builder->add('fruits', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choices' => [
        'Apple' => 1,
        'Banana' => 2,
        'Durian' => 3,
    ],
    'choice_attr' => [
        'Apple' => ['data-color' => 'Red'],
        'Banana' => ['data-color' => 'Yellow'],
        'Durian' => ['data-color' => 'Green'],
    ],
]);

// or use a callable
$builder->add('attending', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choices' => [
        'Yes' => true,
        'No' => false,
        'Maybe' => null,
    ],
    'choice_attr' => function ($choice, string $key, mixed $value) {
        // adds a class like attending_yes, attending_no, etc
        return ['class' => 'attending_'.strtolower($key)];
    },
]);

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use App\Entity\Category;
use Symfony\Component\Form\ChoiceList\ChoiceList;

// ...
$builder->add('choices', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choice_attr' => ChoiceList::attr($this, function (?Category $category): array {
        return $category ? ['data-uuid' => $category->getUuid()] : [];
    }),
]);

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.

expanded

type: boolean default: false

If set to true, radio buttons or checkboxes will be rendered (depending on the multiple value). If false, a select element will be rendered.

group_by

type: string, callable or PropertyPath default: null

You can group the <option> elements of a <select> into <optgroup> by passing a multi-dimensional array to choices. See the Grouping Options section about that.

The group_by option is an alternative way to group choices, which gives you a bit more flexibility.

Take the following example:

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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\ChoiceType;
// ...

$builder->add('publishAt', ChoiceType::class, [
    'choices' => [
        'now' => new \DateTime('now'),
        'tomorrow' => new \DateTime('+1 day'),
        '1 week' => new \DateTime('+1 week'),
        '1 month' => new \DateTime('+1 month'),
    ],
    'group_by' => function($choice, $key, $value) {
        if ($choice <= new \DateTime('+3 days')) {
            return 'Soon';
        }

        return 'Later';
    },
]);

This groups the dates that are within 3 days into "Soon" and everything else into a "Later" <optgroup>:

If you return null, the option won't be grouped. You can also pass a string "property path" that will be called to get the group. See the choice_label for details about using a property path.

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use Symfony\Component\Form\ChoiceList\ChoiceList;

// ...
$builder->add('choices', ChoiceType::class, [
    'group_by' => ChoiceList::groupBy($this, 'category'),
]);

multiple

type: boolean default: false

If true, the user will be able to select multiple options (as opposed to choosing just one option). Depending on the value of the expanded option, this will render either a select tag or checkboxes if true and a select tag or radio buttons if false. The returned value will be a Doctrine's Array Collection.

placeholder

type: string or boolean

This option determines whether or not a special "empty" option (e.g. "Choose an option") will appear at the top of a select widget. This option only applies if the multiple option is set to false.

• Add an empty value with "Choose an option" as the text:

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  use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\ChoiceType;
  // ...
  
  $builder->add('states', ChoiceType::class, [
      'placeholder' => 'Choose an option',
  ]);

• Guarantee that no "empty" value option is displayed:

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  use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\ChoiceType;
  // ...
  
  $builder->add('states', ChoiceType::class, [
      'placeholder' => false,
  ]);

If you leave the placeholder option unset, then a blank (with no text) option will automatically be added if and only if the required option is false:

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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\ChoiceType;
// ...

// a blank (with no text) option will be added
$builder->add('states', ChoiceType::class, [
    'required' => false,
]);

preferred_choices

type: array or callable default: []

This option allows you to move certain choices to the top of your list with a visual separator between them and the rest of the options. This option expects an array of entity objects:

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use App\Entity\User;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
// ...

$builder->add('users', EntityType::class, [
    'class' => User::class,
    // this method must return an array of User entities
    'preferred_choices' => $group->getPreferredUsers(),
]);

The preferred choices are only meaningful when rendering a select element (i.e. expanded false). The preferred choices and normal choices are separated visually by a set of dotted lines (i.e. -------------------). This can be customized when rendering the field:

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{{ form_widget(form.publishAt, { 'separator': '=====' }) }}

translation_domain

type: string default: messages

In case choice_translation_domain is set to true or null, this configures the exact translation domain that will be used for any labels or options that are rendered for this field.

trim

type: boolean default: false

Trimming is disabled by default because the selected value or values must match the given choice values exactly (and they could contain whitespaces).

These options inherit from the form type:

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'],
]);

by_reference

type: boolean default: true

In most cases, if you have an author field, then you expect setAuthor() to be called on the underlying object. In some cases, however, setAuthor() may not be called. Setting by_reference to false ensures that the setter is called in all cases.

To explain this further, here's a simple example:

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use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\EmailType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\FormType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\TextType;
// ...

$builder = $this->createFormBuilder($article);
$builder
    ->add('title', TextType::class)
    ->add(
        $builder->create('author', FormType::class, ['by_reference' => ?])
            ->add('name', TextType::class)
            ->add('email', EmailType::class)
    )

If by_reference is true, the following takes place behind the scenes when you call submit() (or handleRequest()) on the form:

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$article->setTitle('...');
$article->getAuthor()->setName('...');
$article->getAuthor()->setEmail('...');

Notice that setAuthor() is not called. The author is modified by reference.

If you set by_reference to false, submitting looks like this:

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$article->setTitle('...');
$author = clone $article->getAuthor();
$author->setName('...');
$author->setEmail('...');
$article->setAuthor($author);

So, all that by_reference=false really does is that it clones the object, which enforces the framework to call the setter on the parent object.

Similarly, if you're using the CollectionType field where your underlying collection data is an object (like with Doctrine's ArrayCollection), then by_reference must be set to false if you need the adder and remover (e.g. addAuthor() and removeAuthor()) to be called.

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',
]);

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.

empty_data

type: mixed

The actual default value of this option depends on other field options:

• If multiple is false and expanded is false, then '' (empty string);
• Otherwise [] (empty array).

This option determines what value the field will return when the submitted value is empty (or missing). It does not set an initial value if none is provided when the form is rendered in a view.

This means it helps you handling form submission with blank fields. For example, if you want the name field to be explicitly set to John Doe when no value is selected, you can do it like this:

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$builder->add('name', null, [
    'required'   => false,
    'empty_data' => 'John Doe',
]);

This will still render an empty text box, but upon submission the John Doe value will be set. Use the data or placeholder options to show this initial value in the rendered form.

If a form is compound, you can set empty_data as an array, object or closure. See the How to Configure empty Data for a Form Class article for more details about these options.

error_bubbling

type: boolean default: false unless the form is compound

If true, any errors for this field will be passed to the parent field or form. For example, if set to true on a normal field, any errors for that field will be attached to the main form, not to the specific field.

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 or ArrayAccess 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 or TranslatableInterface 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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use Symfony\Component\Translation\TranslatableMessage;

$builder
    ->add('zipCode', null, [
        'help' => 'The ZIP/Postal code for your credit card\'s billing address.',
    ])

    // ...

    ->add('status', null, [
        'help' => new TranslatableMessage('order.status', ['%order_id%' => $order->getId()], 'store'),
    ])
;

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.

label

type: string or TranslatableMessage default: The label is "guessed" from the field name

Sets the label that will be used when rendering the field. Setting to false will suppress the label:

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use Symfony\Component\Translation\TranslatableMessage;

$builder
    ->add('zipCode', null, [
        'label' => 'The ZIP/Postal code',
        // optionally, you can use TranslatableMessage objects as the label content
        'label' => new TranslatableMessage('address.zipCode', ['%country%' => $country], 'address'),
    ])

The label can also be set in the template:

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{{ form_label(form.name, 'Your name') }}

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echo $view['form']->label(
    $form['name'],
    'Your name'
);

label_attr

type: array default: []

Sets the HTML attributes for the <label> element, which will be used when rendering the label for the field. It's an associative array with HTML attribute as a key. This attributes can also be directly set inside the template:

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{{ form_label(form.name, 'Your name', {
    'label_attr': {'class': 'CUSTOM_LABEL_CLASS'}
}) }}

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echo $view['form']->label(
    $form['name'],
    'Your name',
    ['label_attr' => ['class' => 'CUSTOM_LABEL_CLASS']]
);

label_format

type: string default: null

Configures the string used as the label of the field, in case the label option was not set. This is useful when using keyword translation messages.

If you're using keyword translation messages as labels, you often end up having multiple keyword messages for the same label (e.g. profile_address_street, invoice_address_street). This is because the label is built for each "path" to a field. To avoid duplicated keyword messages, you can configure the label format to a static value, like:

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// ...
$profileFormBuilder->add('address', AddressType::class, [
    'label_format' => 'form.address.%name%',
]);

$invoiceFormBuilder->add('invoice', AddressType::class, [
    'label_format' => 'form.address.%name%',
]);

This option is inherited by the child types. With the code above, the label of the street field of both forms will use the form.address.street keyword message.

Two variables are available in the label format:

%id%

A unique identifier for the field, consisting of the complete path to the field and the field name (e.g. profile_address_street);

%name%

The field name (e.g. street).

The default value (null) results in a "humanized" version of the field name.

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.

required

type: boolean default: true

If true, an HTML5 required attribute will be rendered. The corresponding label will also render with a required class.

This is superficial and independent of validation. At best, if you let Symfony guess your field type, then the value of this option will be guessed from your validation information.

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' => '...'],
]);

label_translation_parameters

type: array default: []

The content of the label option is translated before displaying it, so it can contain translation placeholders. This option defines the values used to replace those placeholders.

Given this translation message:

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# translations/messages.en.yaml
form.order.id: 'Identifier of the order to %company%'

You can specify the placeholder values as follows:

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$builder->add('id', null, [
    'label' => 'form.order.id',
    'label_translation_parameters' => [
        '%company%' => 'ACME Inc.',
    ],
]);

The label_translation_parameters option of children fields is merged with the same option of their parents, so children can reuse and/or override any of the parent placeholders.

attr_translation_parameters

type: array default: []

The content of the title and placeholder values defined in the attr option is translated before displaying it, so it can contain translation placeholders. This option defines the values used to replace those placeholders.

Given this translation message:

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# translations/messages.en.yaml
form.order.id.placeholder: 'Enter unique identifier of the order to %company%'
form.order.id.title: 'This will be the reference in communications with %company%'

You can specify the placeholder values as follows:

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$builder->add('id', null, [
    'attr' => [
        'placeholder' => 'form.order.id.placeholder',
        'title' => 'form.order.id.title',
    ],
    'attr_translation_parameters' => [
        '%company%' => 'ACME Inc.',
    ],
]);

The attr_translation_parameters option of children fields is merged with the same option of their parents, so children can reuse and/or override any of the parent placeholders.

help_translation_parameters

type: array default: []

The content of the help option is translated before displaying it, so it can contain translation placeholders. This option defines the values used to replace those placeholders.

Given this translation message:

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# translations/messages.en.yaml
form.order.id.help: 'This will be the reference in communications with %company%'

You can specify the placeholder values as follows:

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$builder->add('id', null, [
    'help' => 'form.order.id.help',
    'help_translation_parameters' => [
        '%company%' => 'ACME Inc.',
    ],
]);

The help_translation_parameters option of children fields is merged with the same option of their parents, so children can reuse and/or override any of the parent placeholders.