The NativeSelect component is a simple wrapper for the <select> element with TextField styles. Just like native <select> elements, this wrapper does not support:

• placeholder text
• enabling readOnly (it can almost manually be done by disabling each option yourself, but it'll make it impossible to close on mobile devices if it there are so many options that it covers the entire viewport)

This demo below will show you some patterns you can use to fake placeholder text using the floating label and an empty <option> element as well as a read-only view by disabling all <option>s.

The Select component is a custom widget that allows you to have additional styling controls for a native <select> element while still being accessible. This component inherits all the TextField styles just like the NativeSelect, but also allows each option to be rendered like a ListItem from the @react-md/list and @react-md/menu packages.

Note: Even though the Select component supports the inline prop, it does not behave the same was as the NativeSelect or a native <select> component since it will not automatically update it's width to be the longest renderable option. The size will update whenever the value of the select changes.

This component is fully controlled, so you will need to provide the current value, an onChange handler, and a list of options. An option can be:

• a number
• a string
• or an object of props to pass to a ListItem (see the next example for more details here)

The onChange handler will not be a native change event since there are no <input> or <select> elements being rendered. Instead, the onChange handler will be provided the next value string as the first argument and the option as the second: onChange(nextValue: string, option: object | string | number).

Just like a native <select> component, the list of options can be shown by clicking, pressing the space key, or using the up and down arrow keys. Once the list of options are shown, the user can:

• type letters to find a match starting with the same letters
• use the up and down arrow keys to focus the previous and next items
• use the home and end keys to focus the first and last items
• press the escape key to close the listbox
• use the space or enter key to select and close the listbox

Check out the Customizing Select Options example for some better examples of the typeahead feature

This demo will showcase some of the of the theming options available for a Select and some other built-in functionality.

The default behavior for the Select component is to just render any number or string options as the children within the ListItem. Since it is sometimes helpful to be able to add additional information, styling, or icons with the options, an option can also be an object of props to pass to the ListItem instead.

When the option is an object, the default behavior will be to:

• use option.label || option.children as the displayable children
• use the option.value as the value for this option
• remove the option.label and option.value keys from the object before passing it as props to the ListItem

The label will be displayed in the option itself as well as in the select button when the option's value matches the select's value. This simplest way to add customization is to transform your list of options to follow this pattern.

However, this might not match all use-cases and customizations required, so the select also has the following props to help with rendering and accessibility:

• labelKey - A key on the object that should be considered the label
• valueKey - A key on the object that should be considered the value
• getOptionLabel - A function that is called for each option to extract a label
• getOptionValue - A function that is called for each option to extract a value
• getDisplayLabel - A function that is called for the selected option that should return a renderable ode to display within the Select's button.

You probably won't need all this additional functionality other than the labelKey and valueKey props, but it might be useful for virtualization libraries or other stuff like that.

The examples below will show some use-cases for these props to add some more style to your select fields:

• using the labelKey and valueKey props converting a list of states that have the format of interface State { name: string; abbreviation: string; } without needing to transform the list yourself
• rendering custom children within each option and still being search accessible
• displaying icons/avatars along with the selected option in the Select's button