Adding text (just text!) to a form in Drupal 7

Question

OK, I finally figured out how to add (or edit) form controls through the form API in Drupal.

But now, I would like to add text to a form. Not a <textarea>, and not a <textfield>; both of which can be edited by the user. I would like to add <p>static text</p>, written by me, to be read by the user.

How would one do that?

Solution

You can do this using #markup:

$form['some_text'] = array(
  '#markup' => '<p>Some text</p>'
);

Comments

[theunraveler]

I'm pretty sure the #type line isn't necessary if you are using render arrays. But it doesn't hurt to keep it in there.

[Clive]

@theunraveler: Yep you're right I just put it in there for demonstration

[apaderno]

The default type in Drupal 7 is "markup", not "item" as used in this answer. If you want to use "item", you need to explicitly set #type.

[geerlingguy]

Also, for really short strings, or passing in a variable with markup in it, you can get by with $form['some_text']['#markup'] = 'HTML';, saving two lines of code :)

[Cory Baumer]

I found people suggesting using prefix or suffix on an element before or after the desired markup, but this is clearly the best option

[cdonner]

This adds a <p> inside the submit button container widget of my views exposed form, which is not what I want.

[cdonner]

But this is: $form['#prefix'] = '<p>Some text</p>';

[Matt Saunders]

Is this supposed to go in template.php? It doesn't seem to do anything. I'm using correct form ID (replacing - with _ but still nothing at all)