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placeholder/css pseudo elements on data picker

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Sadly the HTML spec doesn't allow for the placeholder attribute on an <input type='date'...> field, so we have to find workarounds.

In Chrome, and Safari (iOS only, macOS has it's own issues) the hack following works (though annoyingly shws both palceholder and a truncated date picker), but the selector seems to be ignored in Firefox so we see the datepicker but no placeholder.

   <style>
       input[type='date']:before {
           content: attr(placeholder)
         }
   </style>
   <input type="date" name="dob" placeholder="Date of Birth " onfocus="this.placeholder=''" onblur="if (this.value==''){this.placeholder='Date of Birth '}">
   
   

I am hoping I'm just being dumb and missing something obvious, but any pointers are welcome ;)

Sadly the HTML spec doesn't allow for the placeholder attribute on an <input type='date'...> field, so we have to find workarounds. In Chrome, and Safari (iOS only, macOS has it's own issues) the hack following works (though annoyingly shws both palceholder and a truncated date picker), but the selector seems to be ignored in Firefox so we see the datepicker but no placeholder. <style> input[type='date']:before { content: attr(placeholder) } </style> <input type="date" name="dob" placeholder="Date of Birth&nbsp;" onfocus="this.placeholder=&#39;&#39;" onblur="if (this.value==&#39;&#39;){this.placeholder='Date of Birth&nbsp;'}"> I am hoping I'm just being dumb and missing something obvious, but any pointers are welcome ;)

Modified by offbeatmammal

All Replies (2)

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Where is the placeholder supposed to appear? When I use your input tag, the control is filled with mm/dd/yyyy so there isn't any room for text to appear.

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I would like it in place of the dd/mm/yyyy as that conveys no information to the user as to what the field is going to contain. Ideal outcome would be for the placeholder to be replaced by the dd/mm/yyyy text when the field gets focus as then we get the benefit of the placeholder and the formatting hint when the user actually goes to enter data

with the hack above I can have both placeholder and the format hint in Chrome (or just the placeholder on iOS/Android, as there's no keyboard option, just the date picker pop-up)

see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20321202/not-showing-placeholder-for-input-type-date-field/23683687#23683687