# Blanks in date\_select need configurable text **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 11, 2008, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389 "2008-12-11T11:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/1 "2008-12-11T11:16:00Z")
I thought I’d mailed this already, but I haven’t seen it show up on the list, so I’m mailing it again. My apologies if it does show up twice now. I want something really simple: I want a date\_select that has blanks (:include\_blanks works fine so far), but having an empty value in the select box on the webpage is ugly, so I want something more informative there, like “month” or “select a month” or something. In other words: Month January February March April May June July August September October November December How do I do that? I can’t find any way to accomplish this in any docs nor in the source, yet it seems like a really obvious thing to want to do. Martijn. ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/2 "2008-12-11T12:08:54Z")
There is an option prompt like \<%= select(“model”, “status\_id”, Status.find(:all).collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] },options ={:prompt =\> “\<\< Select any \>\>”}) %\> I think you can do similarly Sijo ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/3 "2008-12-11T12:38:11Z")
On Dec 11, 2008, at 12:08 PM, Sijo Kg wrote: > There is an option prompt like > \<%= select(“model”, “status\_id”, Status.find(:all).collect {|p| [ > p.name, p.id ] },options ={:prompt =\> “\<\< Select any \>\>”}) %\> > > I think you can do similarly Doesn’t seem to work in date\_select. And throwing away the power of date\_select in order to handle everything myself seems like a bad idea. I’d rather add this functionality to date\_select. Martijn. ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/4 "2008-12-11T13:21:08Z")
On 11 Dec 2008, at 11:37, Martijn Vos wrote: > Doesn’t seem to work in date\_select. And throwing away the > power of date\_select in order to handle everything myself seems > like a bad idea. I’d rather add this functionality to date\_select. If you’re worrying about good UI, date\_select is pretty horrible anyway. Would be something of a lipstick on a pig thing. Fred ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/5 "2008-12-11T13:56:31Z")
On Dec 11, 2008, at 1:19 PM, Frederick C. wrote: > > power of date\_select in order to handle everything myself seems > > like a bad idea. I’d rather add this functionality to date\_select. > > If you’re worrying about good UI, date\_select is pretty horrible > anyway. Would be something of a lipstick on a pig thing. Until I needed to add a nil option, date\_select worked fine for me. What’s so wrong with it (other than this particular issue)? And is there a better alternative availlable? Thanks, Martijn. ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/6 "2008-12-11T14:00:03Z")
On 11 Dec 2008, at 12:55, Martijn Vos wrote: > > > > I think you can do similarly > > > > And is there a better alternative availlable? > > > > People have a hard time working with stuff like ‘20th december’. Is > > > > that a saturday or a sunday etc… Or they’re thinking in terms of > > > > ‘next monday’ and things like that, in which case it’s a lot simpler > > > > if they don’t have to do the date maths themselves. Fred ---
**Author:** ![Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martijn\_Vos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martijn_Vos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/blanks-in-date-select-need-configurable-text/155389/7 "2008-12-11T14:45:52Z")
On Dec 11, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Frederick C. wrote: > > > > > > People have a hard time working with stuff like ‘20th december’. Is > that a saturday or a sunday etc… Or they’re thinking in terms of > ‘next monday’ and things like that, in which case it’s a lot simpler > if they don’t have to do the date maths themselves. Point taken. But I’m using date\_select for birth dates, so for me days of the week aren’t much of an issue. I just don’t want to force a default birth date on people who are unwilling to provide it. The day-month-year combo of date\_select seems perfect for me so far, except for the inability to provide a nice text for the empty value. Martijn.