DEFAULT_PLACEHOLDER

This option determines what value the field will return when the submitted

value is empty. It does not set an initial value if none is provided when

the form is rendered in a view (see ``data`` or ``placeholder`` options).

value is empty (or missing). It does not set an initial value if none is

provided when the form is rendered in a view (see ``data`` or ``placeholder``

options).

It helps you handling form submission and you can customize this to your needs.

For example, if you want the ``gender``choicefield to be explicitly set to ``Male``

For example, if you want the ``name`` field to be explicitly set to ``John Doe``

when no value is selected, you can do it like this::

$builder->add('gender', 'choice', array(

'choices' => array(

'm' => 'Male',

'f' => 'Female',

),

$builder->add('name', null, array(

'required' => false,

'placeholder' => 'Choose your gender',

'empty_data' => 'm',

'empty_data' => 'John Doe',

));

If a form is compound, you can set ``empty_data`` as an array withfields names

If a form is compound, you can set ``empty_data`` as an array withfield names

as keys and submitted values as string values (or arrays if nested fields are

also compound).

.. caution::

In this example, the choice field is not set as ``multiple``. If it was

``empty_data`` option should be an array of submitted string values::

'empty_data' => array('m'),

.. note::

If you want to set the ``empty_data`` option for your entire form class,

see the :doc:`/form/use_empty_data` article.

.. caution::

When using `empty_data` as an empty string, the form will always return

``null``. If you need to get an empty string to be returned, you should

use a data transformer, see the :doc:`/form/data_transformers` article.