I want to add icons in my select menu. In one of Stack Overflow pages I have found that I can use Font Awesome and insert icon as a text. I included script in head part. When I tried to use icon in a select menu, it was not working. But it works outside select menu perfectly. Is it possible to insert icon in a select menu option or it is simply impossible to do? How can I do it?
There is a link to font awesome page:
There is a snippet of what I tried
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script src=".js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i>
<br><br><br>
<select>
<option><i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i></option>
</select>
</body>
</html>I want to add icons in my select menu. In one of Stack Overflow pages I have found that I can use Font Awesome and insert icon as a text. I included script in head part. When I tried to use icon in a select menu, it was not working. But it works outside select menu perfectly. Is it possible to insert icon in a select menu option or it is simply impossible to do? How can I do it?
There is a link to font awesome page: https://fontawesome./cheatsheet/free/solid
There is a snippet of what I tried
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script src="https://kit.fontawesome./9593bd7a92.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i>
<br><br><br>
<select>
<option><i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i></option>
</select>
</body>
</html>2 Answers
Reset to default 4This is a limitation of HTML. select and option elements are native to HTML and do not have the ability to display HTML within them.
You'll need to mimic a select element with HTML, CSS + JavaScript and then map the value to a hidden input element (if you're using it as part of a form).
<ul class="select">
<li class="option"><i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i></li>
<li class="option"><i class="fas fa-star">Star</i></li>
<li class="option"><i class="fas fa-user">User</i></li>
</ul>
This can help for providing insight on the interactive aspect of your dropdown (so it does more than just display as a list): https://www.w3schools./howto/howto_js_dropdown.asp
Here is my solution
By default i tags are stripped from options in HTML
Add icons in the following method
<option> Truck</option>
Also add following CSS
select,option {
font-family: 'Arial', 'Font Awesome 5 Pro';
font-weight: 900;
}
Replace the "Arial" font with your website font name.
Replace the middle code with the icon code of your choice
'&#x' + 'f0d1'(fontawsome truck icon code) + ;
The icon code can be found by right clicking on icon and checking the before pseudo element of the i tag of an icon.
select,option {
font-family: 'Arial', 'Font Awesome 5 Pro';
font-weight: 900;
}<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script src="https://kit.fontawesome./9593bd7a92.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<i class="fas fa-truck">Truck</i>
<br><br><br>
<select>
<option> Truck</option>
<option> Truck</option>
<option> Truck</option>
<option> Truck</option>
</select>
</body>
</html>Updated Answer
Since the above answer doesn't work on phones, you will have to implement custom select
Following is the code from w3schools how to create custom select
I modified the code to add support for icons.
var x, i, j, selElmnt, a, b, c;
function generateInnerDiv(index) {
nametag = document.createElement("span");
nametag.textContent = selElmnt.options[index].textContent;
icon = document.createElement("i");
icon.setAttribute("class", selElmnt.options[index].getAttribute('data-icon'));
return [icon, nametag]
}
/*look for any elements with the class "custom-select":*/
x = document.getElementsByClassName("custom-select");
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
selElmnt = x[i].getElementsByTagName("select")[0];
/*for each element, create a new DIV that will act as the selected item:*/
a = document.createElement("DIV");
a.setAttribute("class", "select-selected");
innerDiv = generateInnerDiv(selElmnt.selectedIndex)
a.appendChild(innerDiv[0]);
a.appendChild(innerDiv[1]);
//a.innerHTML = selElmnt.options[selElmnt.selectedIndex].innerHTML;
x[i].appendChild(a);
/*for each element, create a new DIV that will contain the option list:*/
b = document.createElement("DIV"); //items holder
b.setAttribute("class", "select-items select-hide");
for (j = 1; j < selElmnt.length; j++) {
/*for each option in the original select element,
create a new DIV that will act as an option item:*/
c = document.createElement("DIV");
innerDiv = generateInnerDiv(j);
c.appendChild(innerDiv[0]);
c.appendChild(innerDiv[1]);
//c.innerHTML = selElmnt.options[j].innerHTML;
c.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
/*when an item is clicked, update the original select box,
and the selected item:*/
var y, i, k, s, h, l, m;
s = this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("select")[0];
h = this.parentNode.previousSibling;
l = this.getElementsByTagName("span")[0];
m = this.getElementsByTagName("i")[0];
for (i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
if (s.options[i].innerHTML == l.innerHTML) {
s.selectedIndex = i;
h.getElementsByTagName("span")[0].innerHTML = l.innerHTML;
h.getElementsByTagName("i")[0].setAttribute("class", s.options[i].getAttribute('data-icon'));
y = this.parentNode.getElementsByClassName("same-as-selected");
for (k = 0; k < y.length; k++) {
y[k].removeAttribute("class");
}
this.setAttribute("class", "same-as-selected");
break;
}
}
h.click();
});
b.appendChild(c);
}
x[i].appendChild(b);
a.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
/*when the select box is clicked, close any other select boxes,
and open/close the current select box:*/
e.stopPropagation();
closeAllSelect(this);
this.nextSibling.classList.toggle("select-hide");
this.classList.toggle("select-arrow-active");
});
}
function closeAllSelect(elmnt) {
/*a function that will close all select boxes in the document,
except the current select box:*/
var x, y, i, arrNo = [];
x = document.getElementsByClassName("select-items");
y = document.getElementsByClassName("select-selected");
for (i = 0; i < y.length; i++) {
if (elmnt == y[i]) {
arrNo.push(i)
} else {
y[i].classList.remove("select-arrow-active");
}
}
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
if (arrNo.indexOf(i)) {
x[i].classList.add("select-hide");
}
}
}
/*if the user clicks anywhere outside the select box,
then close all select boxes:*/
document.addEventListener("click", closeAllSelect);
//////////////////
//How to get values from custom select
//////////////////
document.getElementById("btn1").addEventListener("click", () => {
console.log(document.getElementById("myselect1").value)
});
document.getElementById("btn2").addEventListener("click", () => {
console.log(document.getElementById("myselect2").value)
});.custom-select {
position: relative;
font-family: Arial;
}
.custom-select select {
display: none;
/*hide original SELECT element:*/
}
.custom-select i {
margin-right: 10px;
}
.select-selected {
background-color: DodgerBlue;
}
/*style the arrow inside the select element:*/
.select-selected:after {
position: absolute;
content: "";
top: 14px;
right: 10px;
width: 0;
height: 0;
border: 6px solid transparent;
border-color: #fff transparent transparent transparent;
}
/*point the arrow upwards when the select box is open (active):*/
.select-selected.select-arrow-active:after {
border-color: transparent transparent #fff transparent;
top: 7px;
}
/*style the items (options), including the selected item:*/
.select-items div,
.select-selected {
color: #ffffff;
padding: 8px 16px;
border: 1px solid transparent;
border-color: transparent transparent rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) transparent;
cursor: pointer;
user-select: none;
}
/*style items (options):*/
.select-items {
position: absolute;
background-color: DodgerBlue;
top: 100%;
left: 0;
right: 0;
z-index: 99;
}
/*hide the items when the select box is closed:*/
.select-hide {
display: none;
}
.select-items div:hover,
.same-as-selected {
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
}<script src="https://kit.fontawesome./9593bd7a92.js"></script>
<h2>Custom Select</h2>
<!--surround the select box with a "custom-select" DIV element. Remember to set the width:-->
<div class="custom-select" style="width:200px;">
<select id="myselect1">
<option data-icon="fas fa-truck" value="0">Select car:</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-adjust" value="Audi">Audi</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-truck" value="BMW">BMW</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-up" value="Citroen">Citroen</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-asterisk" value="Ford">Ford</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-left" value="Honda">Honda</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-down" value="Jaguar">Jaguar</option>
</select>
</div>
<br />
<div class="custom-select" style="width:200px;">
<select id="myselect2">
<option data-icon="fas fa-truck" value="0">Select car:</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-adjust" value="Audi">Audi</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-truck" value="BMW">BMW</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-up" value="Citroen">Citroen</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-asterisk" value="Ford">Ford</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-left" value="Honda">Honda</option>
<option data-icon="fas fa-arrow-down" value="Jaguar">Jaguar</option>
</select>
</div>
<br />
<h3>For testing Purpose<h3>
<button id="btn1">
Console log Select 1 value
</button>
<button id="btn2">
Console log Select 2 value
</button>