How to change the date year range on a Form API 'date' element

tags:

By default, the range of a date element goes from the year 1900 to 2050. In some cases, we don't want users to enter a year value in the future, so we're going to have to limit the range. 1) Add the '#process' property to your date Form API element, and add a property for the start and end year (or you could hardcode this later if you don't want to make it variable)

$form['date_of_birth'] = array(
  '#type' => 'date',
  '#title' => t('Date of birth'),
  '#process' => array('custom_date_element'), // ADD #process property
  '#start_year' => 1900,
  '#end_year' => format_date(time(), 'custom', 'Y'),
);

2) Open the file /includes/form.inc and find the function expand_date(). 3) Copy the function, and paste it in your own module. Change the name of the function to the value of your #process property (in our case custom_date_element) 4) Find the following code in the function:

function custom_date_element($element) {
  (...)
  case 'year':
    $options = drupal_map_assoc(range(1900, 2050));
    break;

5) Replace it by:

function custom_date_element($element) {
  (...)
  case 'year':
    $start_year = isset($element['#start_year']) ? $element['#start_year'] : 1900;
    $end_year = isset($element['#end_year']) ? $element['#end_year'] : format_date(time(), 'custom', 'Y');
    $options = drupal_map_assoc(range($start_year, $end_year));
    break;

6) Now your form element should be within the range you supplied. Alternately you could also not use the #start_year and #end_year properties, but just change the range in your copied function, if you don't want to make them variable.

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Submitted by Sven on Sat, 29/11/2008 - 13:07 5 comments

thanks, was very helpful :)

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 01/06/2009 - 15:33.

thanks, was very helpful :)

thanks!

Submitted by Trevor on Fri, 02/10/2009 - 20:45.

Also, you can put your custom_date_element($element) in template.php instead of the module file.

I did it this way because I have multiple modules calling the function, but I realistically should have all of these modules consolidated, but just an FYI.

Thanks again for the greatness.