Placeholder for select with AngularJS

Question

I can't get a placeholder idea with select. With the below the first entry is still blank.

<select class="form-control" ng-model="refData" required>
     <option ng-repeat="d in refData">
          {{d.value}}
     </option>
     <option value="" disabled hidden selected>View current values</option>
</select>

Solution 1

You can use transclusion to add an extra option that is disabled and selected. See How do I make a placeholder for a 'select' box? for more background on that general solution. Here is the ngSelect documentation for reference, as well.

View

<div ng-controller="MyCtrl">
    <select name="mySelect" 
            id="mySelect"
            ng-options="option.name for option in refData track by option.id"
            ng-model="selectedOption">
         <option value="" disabled selected>View current values</option>
     </select>
</div>

AngularJS application

var myApp = angular.module('myApp',[]);

myApp.controller('MyCtrl', function ($scope) {
    $scope.refData = [
      {id: '1', name: 'Option A'},
      {id: '2', name: 'Option B'},
      {id: '3', name: 'Option C'}
    ];

    $scope.selectedOption =  "";
});

JsFiddle Demo

Solution 2

<select ng-model="testData" ng-options="test.name for test in testData">
        <option value="" selected>View current values</option>
</select>

Given test data is:

$scope.testData = [{"name" : "John"}, {"name" : "Micheal"}, {"name" : "Sarah"}];

Solution 3

I suggest using ng-options

<select ng-options="d as d.value for d in refData" ng-model="refDataSelected"></select>

On your controller you can declare

$scope.refDataSelected = refData[0]

to use first element as default option

If you want to create a dummy text you can add a new object to refData with custom text and give it an unreal id like -1. But when you submit you should check whether its id is -1 or not.

Comments

[user441521]

I don't want to have the first one as the default. I want a message that says whatever I want it to say but it's not an option to select.

[user441521]

Interesting that using ng-options worked but ng-repeat doesn't. Oh well, thanks.