Problem/Motivation

I need to make the "- Select -" option available by default for non-required fields in a Drupal Form. But can't do this for some reason, seems this is a bug in the Drupal Form API.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a Drupal form like this:

  public function buildForm(array $form, FormStateInterface $form_state) {
    $form['val1'] = [
      '#title' => 'Val1',
      '#type' => 'select',
      '#options' => ['one', 'two', 'three'],
      '#required' => TRUE,
    ];
    $form['val2'] = [
      '#title' => 'Val2',
      '#type' => 'select',
      '#options' => ['one', 'two', 'three'],
      '#required' => FALSE,
    ];
    return $form;

2. See that the "- Select -" option is available for the required field "Val1"
But not available for the non-required field "Val2":
Val1
Val2

Proposed resolution

I see no real reasons for this strange behavior, even the opposite - for the non-required fields we should provide the ability to select "nothing".

So, looks like we should find the source of this strange behavior, and provide a fix for it.

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

Introduced terminology

API changes

Data model changes

Release notes snippet

CommentFileSizeAuthor
ksnip_20250508-151659.png9.15 KBmurz
ksnip_20250508-151657.png8.41 KBmurz

Comments

murz created an issue. See original summary.

cilefen’s picture

cilefen commented
Category: Bug report » Support request

I think the setting you are looking for is #empty_value.

Its documentation reads:

 * - #empty_option: (optional) The label to show for the first default option.
 *   By default, the label is automatically set to "- Select -" for a required
 *   field and "- None -" for an optional field.
 * - #empty_value: (optional) The value for the first default option, which is
 *   used to determine whether the user submitted a value or not.
 *   - If #required is TRUE, this defaults to '' (an empty string).
 *   - If #required is not TRUE and this value isn't set, then no extra option
 *     is added to the select control, leaving the control in a slightly
 *     illogical state, because there's no way for the user to select nothing,
 *     since all user agents automatically preselect the first available
 *     option. But people are used to this being the behavior of select
 *     controls.
cilefen’s picture

cilefen commented

There is a @todo below that documentation saying "address the above issue in Drupal 8", so I guess that hasn't yet happened. I hope there is an issue open somewhere to make this "just work" by default.

cilefen’s picture

cilefen commented
Related issues: +#2243639: Setting #empty_value to anything other than 0 or an "" does not work for required fields, +#1585930: Render the _none option as an empty value for single select to allow client side validation

I am relating a few issues.

Version: 11.x-dev » main

Drupal core is now using the main branch as the primary development branch. New developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted to the main branch.

Read more in the announcement.

quietone’s picture

quietone commented
Status: Active » Fixed

@cilefen, has provided a solution here and indicated the existing issues to fix this behavior. So, I think this cab be closed in favor of those issues. Any further discussion should happen in one of those.

I am closing this per the guidance in Handle or refer a support request in an issue.

Now that this issue is closed, review the contribution record.

As a contributor, attribute any organization that helped you, or if you volunteered your own time.

Maintainers, credit people who helped resolve this issue.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.