The jQuery UI Datepicker is a highly configurable plugin that adds datepicker functionality to your pages. You can customize the date format and language, restrict the selectable date ranges and add in buttons and other navigation options easily.
By default, the datepicker calendar opens in a small overlay when the associated text field gains focus. For an inline calendar, simply attach the datepicker to a div or span.
Keyboard interaction
While the datepicker is open, the following key commands are available:
PAGE UP
: Move to the previous month.
PAGE DOWN
: Move to the next month.
CTRL
+
PAGE UP
: Move to the previous year.
CTRL
+
PAGE DOWN
: Move to the next year.
CTRL
+
HOME
: Open the datepicker if closed.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
HOME
: Move to the current month.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
LEFT
: Move to the previous day.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
RIGHT
: Move to the next day.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
UP
: Move to the previous week.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
DOWN
: Move to the next week.
ENTER
: Select the focused date.
CTRL
/
COMMAND
+
END
: Close the datepicker and erase the date.
ESCAPE
: Close the datepicker without selection.
Utility functions
$.datepicker.setDefaults( options )
Change the default options for all date pickers.
Use the
option()
method to change options for individual instances.
Code examples:
Set all date pickers to open on focus or a click on an icon.
Format a date into a string value with a specified format.
The format can be combinations of the following:
d - day of month (no leading zero)
dd - day of month (two digit)
o - day of the year (no leading zeros)
oo - day of the year (three digit)
D - day name short
DD - day name long
m - month of year (no leading zero)
mm - month of year (two digit)
M - month name short
MM - month name long
y - year (two digit)
yy - year (four digit)
@ - Unix timestamp (ms since 01/01/1970)
! - Windows ticks (100ns since 01/01/0001)
'...' - literal text
'' - single quote
anything else - literal text
There are also a number of predefined standard date formats available from
$.datepicker
:
ATOM - 'yy-mm-dd' (Same as RFC 3339/ISO 8601)
COOKIE - 'D, dd M yy'
ISO_8601 - 'yy-mm-dd'
RFC_822 - 'D, d M y' (See RFC 822)
RFC_850 - 'DD, dd-M-y' (See RFC 850)
RFC_1036 - 'D, d M y' (See RFC 1036)
RFC_1123 - 'D, d M yy' (See RFC 1123)
RFC_2822 - 'D, d M yy' (See RFC 2822)
RSS - 'D, d M y' (Same as RFC 822)
TICKS - '!'
TIMESTAMP - '@'
W3C - 'yy-mm-dd' (Same as ISO 8601)
Code examples:
Display the date in ISO format. Produces "2007-01-26".
$.datepicker.formatDate( "DD, MM d, yy", new Date( 2007, 7 - 1, 14 ), {
dayNamesShort: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].dayNamesShort,
dayNames: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].dayNames,
monthNamesShort: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].monthNamesShort,
monthNames: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].monthNames
$.datepicker.parseDate( format, value, options )
Extract a date from a string value with a specified format.
The format can be combinations of the following:
d - day of month (no leading zero)
dd - day of month (two digit)
o - day of year (no leading zeros)
oo - day of year (three digit)
D - day name short
DD - day name long
m - month of year (no leading zero)
mm - month of year (two digit)
M - month name short
MM - month name long
y - year (two digit)
yy - year (four digit)
@ - Unix timestamp (ms since 01/01/1970)
! - Windows ticks (100ns since 01/01/0001)
'...' - literal text
'' - single quote
anything else - literal text
A number of exceptions may be thrown:
'Invalid arguments' if either format or value is null
'Missing number at position nn' if format indicated a numeric value that is not then found
'Unknown name at position nn' if format indicated day or month name that is not then found
'Unexpected literal at position nn' if format indicated a literal value that is not then found
'Invalid date' if the date is invalid, such as '31/02/2007'
Code examples:
Extract a date in ISO format.
$.datepicker.parseDate( "DD, MM d, yy", "Samedi, Juillet 14, 2007", {
dayNamesShort: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].dayNamesShort,
dayNames: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].dayNames,
monthNamesShort: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].monthNamesShort,
monthNames: $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ].monthNames
$.datepicker.iso8601Week( date )
Determine the week of the year for a given date: 1 to 53.
This function uses the ISO 8601 definition of a week: weeks start on a Monday and the first week of the year contains January 4. This means that up to three days from the previous year may be included in the of first week of the current year, and that up to three days from the current year may be included in the last week of the previous year.
This function is the default implementation for the
calculateWeek
option.
Code examples:
Find the week of the year for a date.
$.datepicker.noWeekends
Set as beforeShowDay function to prevent selection of weekends.
We can provide the
noWeekends()
function into the
beforeShowDay
option which will calculate all the weekdays and provide an array of
true
/
false
values indicating whether a date is selectable.
Code examples:
Set the DatePicker so no weekend is selectable
Localization
Datepicker provides support for localizing its content to cater for different languages and date formats. Each localization is contained within its own file with the language code appended to the name, e.g.,
jquery.ui.datepicker-fr.js
for French. The desired localization file should be included after the main datepicker code. Each localization file adds its options to the set of available localizations and automatically applies them as defaults for all instances. Localization files can be found at
https://github.com/jquery/jquery-ui/tree/master/ui/i18n
.
The
$.datepicker.regional
attribute holds an array of localizations, indexed by language code, with
""
referring to the default (English). Each entry is an object with the following attributes:
closeText
,
prevText
,
nextText
,
currentText
,
monthNames
,
monthNamesShort
,
dayNames
,
dayNamesShort
,
dayNamesMin
,
weekHeader
,
dateFormat
,
firstDay
,
isRTL
,
showMonthAfterYear
, and
yearSuffix
.
You can restore the default localizations with:
$.datepicker.setDefaults( $.datepicker.regional[ "" ] );
And can then override an individual datepicker for a specific locale:
$( selector ).datepicker( $.datepicker.regional[ "fr" ] );
Theming
The datepicker widget uses the
jQuery UI CSS framework
to style its look and feel. If datepicker specific styling is needed, the following CSS class names can be used for overrides or as keys for the
classes
option
:
ui-datepicker
: The outer container of the datepicker. If the datepicker is inline, this element will additionally have a
ui-datepicker-inline
class. If the
isRTL
option is set, this element will additionally have a class of
ui-datepicker-rtl
.
ui-datepicker-header
: The container for the datepicker's header.
ui-datepicker-prev
: The control used to select previous months.
ui-datepicker-next
: The control used to select subsequent months.
ui-datepicker-title
: The container for the datepicker's title containing the month and year.
ui-datepicker-month
: The textual display of the month or a
<select>
element if the
changeMonth
option is set.
ui-datepicker-year
: The textual display of the year or a
<select>
element if the
changeYear
option is set.
ui-datepicker-week-end
: Cells containing weekend days.
ui-datepicker-other-month
: Cells containing days that occur in a month other than the currently selected month.
ui-datepicker-unselectable
: Cells containing days that are not selectable by the user.
ui-datepicker-current-day
: The cell containing the selected day.
ui-datepicker-today
: The cell containing today's date.
ui-datepicker-buttonpane
: The buttonpane that is used when the
showButtonPanel
option is set.
ui-datepicker-current
: The button used to select today's date.
ui-datepicker-multi
: The outermost container of a multiple month datepicker. This element can additionally have a
ui-datepicker-multi-2
,
ui-datepicker-multi-3
, or
ui-datepicker-multi-4
class name depending on the number of months to display.
ui-datepicker-group
: Individual pickers within the group. This element will additionally have a
ui-datepicker-group-first
,
ui-datepicker-group-middle
, or
ui-datepicker-group-last
class name depending on its position within the group.
This widget requires some functional CSS, otherwise it won't work. If you build a custom theme, use the widget's specific CSS file as a starting point.
This widget manipulates its element's value programmatically, therefore a native
change
event may not be fired when the element's value changes.
Creating a datepicker on an
<input type="date">
is not supported due to a UI conflict with the native picker.
altField
Type:
Selector
or
jQuery
or
Element
Default:
""
An input element that is to be updated with the selected date from the datepicker. Use the
altFormat
option to change the format of the date within this field. Leave as blank for no alternate field.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
altField
option specified:
Default:
""
The
dateFormat
to be used for the
altField
option. This allows one date format to be shown to the user for selection purposes, while a different format is actually sent behind the scenes. For a full list of the possible formats see the
formatDate
function
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
altFormat
option specified:
Default:
false
Set to
true
to automatically resize the input field to accommodate dates in the current
dateFormat
.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
autoSize
option specified:
Default:
null
A function that takes an input field and current datepicker instance and returns an options object to update the datepicker with. It is called just before the datepicker is displayed.
beforeShowDay
Type:
Function
(
Date
date )
Default:
null
A function that takes a date as a parameter and must return an array with:
[0]
:
true
/
false
indicating whether or not this date is selectable
[1]
: a CSS class name to add to the date's cell or
""
for the default presentation
[2]
: an optional popup tooltip for this date
The function is called for each day in the datepicker before it is displayed.
buttonImage
Type:
String
Default:
""
A URL of an image to use to display the datepicker when the
showOn
option is set to
"button"
or
"both"
. If set, the
buttonText
option becomes the
alt
value and is not directly displayed.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
buttonImage
option specified:
Default:
false
Whether the button image should be rendered by itself instead of inside a button element. This option is only relevant if the
buttonImage
option has also been set.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
buttonImageOnly
option specified:
Default:
"..."
The text to display on the trigger button. Use in conjunction with the
showOn
option set to
"button"
or
"both"
.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
buttonText
option specified:
Default:
jQuery.datepicker.iso8601Week
A function to calculate the week of the year for a given date. The default implementation uses the ISO 8601 definition: weeks start on a Monday; the first week of the year contains the first Thursday of the year.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
calculateWeek
option specified:
Default:
false
Whether the year should be rendered as a dropdown instead of text. Use the
yearRange
option to control which years are made available for selection.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
changeYear
option specified:
Default:
"Done"
The text to display for the close link. Use the
showButtonPanel
option to display this button.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
closeText
option specified:
Default:
true
When
true
, entry in the input field is constrained to those characters allowed by the current
dateFormat
option.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
constrainInput
option specified:
Default:
"Today"
The text to display for the current day link. Use the
showButtonPanel
option to display this button.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
currentText
option specified:
Default:
"mm/dd/yy"
The format for parsed and displayed dates. For a full list of the possible formats see the
formatDate
function.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
dateFormat
option specified:
Default:
[ "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday" ]
The list of long day names, starting from Sunday, for use as requested via the
dateFormat
option.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
dayNames
option specified:
Default:
[ "Su", "Mo", "Tu", "We", "Th", "Fr", "Sa" ]
The list of minimised day names, starting from Sunday, for use as column headers within the datepicker.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
dayNamesMin
option specified:
Default:
[ "Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat" ]
The list of abbreviated day names, starting from Sunday, for use as requested via the
dateFormat
option.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
dayNamesShort
option specified:
Default:
null
Set the date to highlight on first opening if the field is blank. Specify either an actual date via a Date object or as a string in the current
dateFormat
, or a number of days from today (e.g. +7) or a string of values and periods ('y' for years, 'm' for months, 'w' for weeks, 'd' for days, e.g. '+1m +7d'), or null for today.
Multiple types supported:
Date
: A date object containing the default date.
Number
: A number of days from today. For example
2
represents two days from today and
-1
represents yesterday.
String
: A string in the format defined by the
dateFormat
option, or a relative date. Relative dates must contain value and period pairs; valid periods are
"y"
for years,
"m"
for months,
"w"
for weeks, and
"d"
for days. For example,
"+1m +7d"
represents one month and seven days from today.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
defaultDate
option specified:
Default:
"normal"
Control the speed at which the datepicker appears, it may be a time in milliseconds or a string representing one of the three predefined speeds ("slow", "normal", "fast").
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
duration
option specified:
Default:
false
When
true
, the current day link moves to the currently selected date instead of today.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
gotoCurrent
option specified:
Default:
false
Normally the previous and next links are disabled when not applicable (see the
minDate
and
maxDate
options). You can hide them altogether by setting this attribute to
true
.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
hideIfNoPrevNext
option specified:
The maximum selectable date. When set to
null
, there is no maximum.
Multiple types supported:
Date
: A date object containing the maximum date.
Number
: A number of days from today. For example
2
represents two days from today and
-1
represents yesterday.
String
: A string in the format defined by the
dateFormat
option, or a relative date. Relative dates must contain value and period pairs; valid periods are
"y"
for years,
"m"
for months,
"w"
for weeks, and
"d"
for days. For example,
"+1m +7d"
represents one month and seven days from today.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
maxDate
option specified:
The minimum selectable date. When set to
null
, there is no minimum.
Multiple types supported:
Date
: A date object containing the minimum date.
Number
: A number of days from today. For example
2
represents two days from today and
-1
represents yesterday.
String
: A string in the format defined by the
dateFormat
option, or a relative date. Relative dates must contain value and period pairs; valid periods are
"y"
for years,
"m"
for months,
"w"
for weeks, and
"d"
for days. For example,
"+1m +7d"
represents one month and seven days from today.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
minDate
option specified:
Default:
[ "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December" ]
The list of full month names, for use as requested via the
dateFormat
option.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
monthNames
option specified:
Default:
[ "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" ]
The list of abbreviated month names, as used in the month header on each datepicker and as requested via the
dateFormat
option.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
monthNamesShort
option specified:
Default:
false
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
navigationAsDateFormat
option specified:
Default:
"Next"
The text to display for the next month link. With the standard ThemeRoller styling, this value is replaced by an icon.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
nextText
option specified:
Number
: The number of months to display in a single row.
Array
: An array defining the number of rows and columns to display.
Code examples:
Initialize the datepicker with the
numberOfMonths
option specified:
Default:
null
Called when the datepicker moves to a new month and/or year. The function receives the selected year, month (1-12), and the datepicker instance as parameters.
this
refers to the associated input field.
Called when the datepicker is closed, whether or not a date is selected. The function receives the selected date as text (
""
if none) and the datepicker instance as parameters.
this
refers to the associated input field.