{html\_select\_date} {#language.function.html.select.date}
====================
`{html_select_date}` is a [custom function](#language.custom.functions)
that creates date dropdowns. It can display any or all of year, month,
and day. All parameters that are not in the list below are printed as
name/value-pairs inside the `` tags of day, month and year.
Attribute Name Type Required Default Description
---------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
prefix string No Date\_ What to prefix the var name with
time [timestamp](&url.php-manual;function.time), [DateTime](&url.php-manual;class.DateTime), mysql timestamp or any string parsable by [`strtotime()`](&url.php-manual;strtotime), arrays as produced by this function if field\_array is set. No current [timestamp](&url.php-manual;function.time) What date/time to pre-select. If an array is given, the attributes field\_array and prefix are used to identify the array elements to extract year, month and day from. Omitting this parameter or supplying a falsy value will select the current date. To prevent date selection, pass in NULL
start\_year string No current year The first year in the dropdown, either year number, or relative to current year (+/- N)
end\_year string No same as start\_year The last year in the dropdown, either year number, or relative to current year (+/- N)
display\_days boolean No TRUE Whether to display days or not
display\_months boolean No TRUE Whether to display months or not
display\_years boolean No TRUE Whether to display years or not
month\_names array No null List of strings to display for months. array(1 =\> \'Jan\', ..., 12 =\> \'Dec\')
month\_format string No \%B What format the month should be in (strftime)
day\_format string No \%02d What format the day output should be in (sprintf)
day\_value\_format string No \%d What format the day value should be in (sprintf)
year\_as\_text boolean No FALSE Whether or not to display the year as text
reverse\_years boolean No FALSE Display years in reverse order
field\_array string No null If a name is given, the select boxes will be drawn such that the results will be returned to PHP in the form of name\[Day\], name\[Year\], name\[Month\].
day\_size string No null Adds size attribute to select tag if given
month\_size string No null Adds size attribute to select tag if given
year\_size string No null Adds size attribute to select tag if given
all\_extra string No null Adds extra attributes to all select/input tags if given
day\_extra string No null Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given
month\_extra string No null Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given
year\_extra string No null Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given
all\_id string No null Adds id-attribute to all select/input tags if given
day\_id string No null Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given
month\_id string No null Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given
year\_id string No null Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given
field\_order string No MDY The order in which to display the fields
field\_separator string No \\n String printed between different fields
month\_value\_format string No \%m strftime() format of the month values, default is %m for month numbers.
all\_empty string No null If supplied then the first element of any select-box has this value as it\'s label and "" as it\'s value. This is useful to make the select-boxes read "Please select" for example.
year\_empty string No null If supplied then the first element of the year\'s select-box has this value as it\'s label and "" as it\'s value. This is useful to make the select-box read "Please select a year" for example. Note that you can use values like "-MM-DD" as time-attribute to indicate an unselected year.
month\_empty string No null If supplied then the first element of the month\'s select-box has this value as it\'s label and "" as it\'s value. . Note that you can use values like "YYYY\--DD" as time-attribute to indicate an unselected month.
day\_empty string No null If supplied then the first element of the day\'s select-box has this value as it\'s label and "" as it\'s value. Note that you can use values like "YYYY-MM-" as time-attribute to indicate an unselected day.
> **Note**
>
> There is an useful php function on the [date tips page](#tips.dates)
> for converting `{html_select_date}` form values to a timestamp.
Template code
{html_select_date}
This will output:
January
February
March
..... snipped .....
October
November
December
01
02
03
..... snipped .....
11
12
13
14
15
..... snipped .....
29
30
31
2006
{* start and end year can be relative to current year *}
{html_select_date prefix='StartDate' time=$time start_year='-5'
end_year='+1' display_days=false}
With 2000 as the current year the output:
January
February
.... snipped ....
November
December
1995
.... snipped ....
1999
2000
2001
See also [`{html_select_time}`](#language.function.html.select.time),
[`date_format`](#language.modifier.date.format),
[`$smarty.now`](#language.variables.smarty.now) and the [date tips
page](#tips.dates).