Placeholder/Example text in textbox for user

Question

What is the step to get example text to show up in an asp.net textbox.

For example, textbox w/ ID = "textboxDate" has [mm/dd/yyyy] inside it for the user to reference.

possible duplicate of [How do I put hint in a asp:textbox](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15823983/how-do-i-put-hint-in-a-asptextbox) — Tim, Jan 08 '14 at 21:10

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '13 at 19:06

38

I believe you want a placeholder attribute:

<asp:TextBox ID="placeholderTextBox" runat="server" placeholder="mm/dd/yyyy"></asp:TextBox>

answered Jun 11 '13 at 19:06

tymeJV

1

I have a question. Please answer. I used this `attribute` for `TextBox` but Visual Studio said : `Attribute 'placeholder' is not a valid attribute of element 'TextBox'` But program worked fine , I could get result what I wanted. Can this message be cause any problem ? – Jeyhun Jun 28 '14 at 13:55
1

@Jeyhun, don't worry about that warning message. – Nick Oct 14 '14 at 22:43
@Jeyhun, the message is merely an annoyance. It can be avoided by setting the placeholder in the Code Behind like `placeholderTextBox.Attributes.Add("placeholder", "mm/dd/yyyy")`. Putting it in the Code Behind is kind of annoying too, but at least the message stops. (This is true for Visual Studio 2015 and possibly other versions.) – Mike Grove aka Theophilus Sep 15 '17 at 13:31

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '13 at 19:19

6

but placeholder doenst work for many IE browser because placeholder is html5 thing.

try to use modernizr framework. it works for all browsers including all IE

here is a sample code for you.

if(modernizr.input.placeholder) {
   //insert placeholder polyfill script here. 
}

answered Jun 11 '13 at 19:19

Arif YILMAZ

I was only going to tell that this isn't working in IE and I saw your post - thanks :) – Yulian Jun 10 '14 at 06:28

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '16 at 10:59

Visual Studio maybe not knowing the attribute. Attributes which are not registered with ASP.net are passed through and rendered as is.

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"  Width="187px" placeholder="mm/dd/yyyy"></asp:TextBox>

So the above code (basically) renders to:

<input type="text" placeholder="mm/dd/yyyy"/>

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 06 '16 at 17:12

You can allways use:

<input ID="placeholderTextBox" type="text" runat="server" placeholder="mm/dd/yyyy" />

and on code behind you can get or set the value using

Dim myValue As String = placeholderTextBox.value or placeholderTextBox.value = "whatsoever"

4 Answers4