bootstrap-datepicker¶
Bootstrap-datepicker provides a flexible datepicker widget in the Twitter bootstrap style.

This is a fork of Stefan Petre’s original code; thanks go to him for getting this thing started!
Please note that this fork is not used on Stefan’s page at this time, nor is it maintained or contributed to by him.
Versions are incremented according to semver.
Requirements¶
These are the specific versions bootstrap-datepicker is tested against (js
files) and built against (css
files). Use other versions at your own risk.
Dependencies¶
Requires bootstrap’s dropdown component (dropdowns.less
) for some styles, and bootstrap’s sprites (sprites.less
and associated images) for arrows.
A standalone .css file (including necessary dropdown styles and alternative, text-based arrows) can be generated by running build/build_standalone.less
through the lessc
compiler:
$ lessc build/build_standalone.less datepicker.css
Usage¶
Call the datepicker via javascript:
$('.datepicker').datepicker()
Data API¶
As with bootstrap’s own plugins, datepicker provides a data-api that can be used to instantiate datepickers without the need for custom javascript. For most datepickers, simply set data-provide="datepicker"
on the element you want to initialize, and it will be intialized lazily, in true bootstrap fashion. For inline datepickers, use data-provide="datepicker-inline"
; these will be immediately initialized on page load, and cannot be lazily loaded.
<input data-provide="datepicker">
You can disable datepicker’s data-api in the same way as you would disable other bootstrap plugins:
$(document).off('.datepicker.data-api');
Configuration¶
Options are passed to the datepicker
function via an options hash at instantiation:
$('.datepicker').datepicker({
format: 'mm/dd/yyyy',
startDate: '-3d'
})
Most options may be provided as data-attributes on the target element:
<input class="datepicker" data-date-format="mm/dd/yyyy">
$('.datepicker').datepicker({
startDate: '-3d'
})
Defaults for all options can be modified directly by changing values in the $.fn.datepicker.defaults
hash:
$.fn.datepicker.defaults.format = "mm/dd/yyyy";
$('.datepicker').datepicker({
startDate: '-3d'
})
No Conflict mode¶
$.fn.datepicker.noConflict
provides a way to avoid conflict with other jQuery datepicker plugins:
var datepicker = $.fn.datepicker.noConflict(); // return $.fn.datepicker to previously assigned value
$.fn.bootstrapDP = datepicker; // give $().bootstrapDP the bootstrap-datepicker functionality
Table of Contents¶
Markup¶
The following are examples of supported markup. On their own, these will not provide a datepicker widget; you will need to instantiate the datepicker on the markup.
input¶
The simplest case: focusing the input (clicking or tabbing into it) will show the picker.
<input type="text" value="02-16-2012">

component¶
Adding the date
class to an input-append
or input-prepend
bootstrap component will allow the add-on
elements to trigger the picker.
<div class="input-append date">
<input type="text" value="12-02-2012">
<span class="add-on"><i class="icon-th"></i></span>
</div>

date-range¶
Using the input-daterange
construct with multiple child inputs will instantiate one picker per input and link them together to allow selecting ranges.
<div class="input-daterange">
<input type="text" class="input-small" value="2012-04-05" />
<span class="add-on">to</span>
<input type="text" class="input-small" value="2012-04-19" />
</div>

inline or embedded¶
Instantiating the datepicker on a simple div will give an embedded picker that is always visible.
<div data-date="12/03/2012"></div>

Example to save the embedded datepicker value to a hidden field
<div id="datepicker" data-date="12/03/2012"></div>
<input type="hidden" id="my_hidden_input" />
$('#datepicker').datepicker();
$("#datepicker").on("changeDate", function(event) {
$("#my_hidden_input").val(
$("#datepicker").datepicker('getFormattedDate')
)
});
Options¶
All options that take a “Date” can handle a Date
object; a String formatted according to the given format
; or a timedelta relative to today, eg “-1d”, “+6m +1y”, etc, where valid units are “d” (day), “w” (week), “m” (month), and “y” (year).
Most options can be provided via data-attributes. An option can be converted to a data-attribute by taking its name, replacing each uppercase letter with its lowercase equivalent preceded by a dash, and prepending “data-date-” to the result. For example, startDate
would be data-date-start-date
, format
would be data-date-format
, and daysOfWeekDisabled
would be data-date-days-of-week-disabled
.
autoclose¶
Boolean. Default: false
Whether or not to close the datepicker immediately when a date is selected.
beforeShowDay¶
Function(Date). Default: $.noop
A function that takes a date as a parameter and returns one of the following values:
- undefined to have no effect
- A Boolean, indicating whether or not this date is selectable
- A String representing additional CSS classes to apply to the date’s cell
- An object with the following properties:
enabled
: same as the Boolean value aboveclasses
: same as the String value abovetooltip
: a tooltip to apply to this date, via thetitle
HTML attribute
beforeShowMonth¶
Function(Date). Default: $.noop
A function that takes a date as a parameter and returns a boolean indicating whether or not this month is selectable
calendarWeeks¶
Boolean. Default: false
Whether or not to show week numbers to the left of week rows.

clearBtn¶
Boolean. Default: false
If true, displays a “Clear” button at the bottom of the datepicker to clear the input value. If “autoclose” is also set to true, this button will also close the datepicker.

toggleActive¶
Boolean. Default: false
If true, selecting the currently active date in the datepicker will unset the respective date. This option is always true when the multidate option is being used.
container¶
String. Default: “body”
Appends the date picker popup to a specific element; eg: container: ‘#picker-container’ (will default to “body”)
daysOfWeekDisabled¶
String, Array. Default: ‘’, []
Days of the week that should be disabled. Values are 0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday). Multiple values should be comma-separated. Example: disable weekends: '0,6'
or [0,6]
.

datesDisabled¶
String, Array. Default: []
Array of date strings or a single date string formatted in the given date format
defaultViewDate¶
Object with keys year
, month
, and day
. Default: today
Date to view when initially opening the calendar. The internal value of the date remains today as default, but when the datepicker is first opened the calendar will open to defaultViewDate
rather than today. If this option is not used, “today” remains the default view date. If the given object is missing any of the required keys, their defaults are:
year
: the current yearmonth
: 1day
: 1
endDate¶
Date. Default: End of time
The latest date that may be selected; all later dates will be disabled.

forceParse¶
Boolean. Default: true
Whether or not to force parsing of the input value when the picker is closed. That is, when an invalid date is left in the input field by the user, the picker will forcibly parse that value, and set the input’s value to the new, valid date, conforming to the given format.
format¶
String. Default: “mm/dd/yyyy”
The date format, combination of d, dd, D, DD, m, mm, M, MM, yy, yyyy.
- d, dd: Numeric date, no leading zero and leading zero, respectively. Eg, 5, 05.
- D, DD: Abbreviated and full weekday names, respectively. Eg, Mon, Monday.
- m, mm: Numeric month, no leading zero and leading zero, respectively. Eg, 7, 07.
- M, MM: Abbreviated and full month names, respectively. Eg, Jan, January
- yy, yyyy: 2- and 4-digit years, respectively. Eg, 12, 2012.
inputs¶
Array. Default: None
A list of inputs to be used in a range picker, which will be attached to the selected element. Allows for explicitly creating a range picker on a non-standard element.
<div class="form-group form-group-filled" id="event_period">
<input type="text" class="actual_range">
<input type="text" class="actual_range">
</div>
$('#event_period').datepicker({
inputs: $('.actual_range').toArray()
});
language¶
String. Default: “en”
The IETF code (eg “en” for English, “pt-BR” for Brazilian Portuguese) of the language to use for month and day names. These will also be used as the input’s value (and subsequently sent to the server in the case of form submissions). If a full code (eg “de-DE”) is supplied the picker will first check for an “de-DE” language and if not found will fallback and check for a “de” language. If an unknown language code is given, English will be used. See I18N.

minViewMode¶
Number, String. Default: 0, “days”
Set a limit for the view mode. Accepts: “days” or 0, “months” or 1, and “years” or 2. Gives the ability to pick only a month or an year. The day is set to the 1st for “months”, and the month is set to January for “years”.
multidate¶
Boolean, Number. Default: false
Enable multidate picking. Each date in month view acts as a toggle button, keeping track of which dates the user has selected in order. If a number is given, the picker will limit how many dates can be selected to that number, dropping the oldest dates from the list when the number is exceeded. true
equates to no limit. The input’s value (if present) is set to a string generated by joining the dates, formatted, with multidateSeparator
.
For selecting 2 dates as a range please see date-range

multidateSeparator¶
String. Default: ”,”
The string that will appear between dates when generating the input’s value. When parsing the input’s value for a multidate picker, this will also be used to split the incoming string to separate multiple formatted dates; as such, it is highly recommended that you not use a string that could be a substring of a formatted date (eg, using ‘-‘ to separate dates when your format is ‘yyyy-mm-dd’).
orientation¶
String. Default: “auto”
A space-separated string consisting of one or two of “left” or “right”, “top” or “bottom”, and “auto” (may be omitted); for example, “top left”, “bottom” (horizontal orientation will default to “auto”), “right” (vertical orientation will default to “auto”), “auto top”. Allows for fixed placement of the picker popup.
“orientation” refers to the location of the picker popup’s “anchor”; you can also think of it as the location of the trigger element (input, component, etc) relative to the picker.
“auto” triggers “smart orientation” of the picker. Horizontal orientation will default to “left” and left offset will be tweaked to keep the picker inside the browser viewport; vertical orientation will simply choose “top” or “bottom”, whichever will show more of the picker in the viewport.
startDate¶
Date. Default: Beginning of time
The earliest date that may be selected; all earlier dates will be disabled.

startView¶
Number, String. Default: 0, “month”
The view that the datepicker should show when it is opened. Accepts values of 0 or “month” for month view (the default), 1 or “year” for the 12-month overview, and 2 or “decade” for the 10-year overview. Useful for date-of-birth datepickers.
todayBtn¶
Boolean, “linked”. Default: false
If true or “linked”, displays a “Today” button at the bottom of the datepicker to select the current date. If true, the “Today” button will only move the current date into view; if “linked”, the current date will also be selected.

showOnFocus¶
Boolean. Default: true
If false, the datepicker will be prevented from showing when the input field associated with it receives focus.
enableOnReadonly¶
Boolean. Default: true
If false the datepicker will not show on a readonly datepicker field.
Methods¶
Methods are called on a datepicker by call the datepicker
function with a string first argument, followed by any arguments the method takes:
$('.datepicker').datepicker('method', arg1, arg2);
remove¶
Arguments: None
Remove the datepicker. Removes attached events, internal attached objects, and added HTML elements.
update¶
Arguments:
- date (String|Date, optional)
Update the datepicker with given argument or the current input value.
If date
is provided and is a Date object, it is assumed to be a “local” date object, and will be converted to UTC for internal use.
$('.datepicker').datepicker('update');
$('.datepicker').datepicker('update', '2011-03-05');
$('.datepicker').datepicker('update', new Date(2011, 2, 5));
To reset the datepicker and clear the selected date, pass an empty string with update
:
$('.datepicker').datepicker('update', '');
setDate¶
Arguments:
- date (Date)
Sets the internal date. date
is assumed to be a “local” date object, and will be converted to UTC for internal use.
setUTCDate¶
Arguments:
- date (Date)
Sets the internal date. date
is assumed to be a UTC date object, and will not be converted.
setDates¶
Arguments:
- date[, date[, ...]] (Date)
or
- [date[, date[, ...]]] (Array)
Sets the internal date list; accepts multiple dates or a single array of dates as arguments. Each date
is assumed to be a “local” date object, and will be converted to UTC for internal use. For use with multidate pickers.
setUTCDates¶
Arguments:
- date[, date[, ...]] (Date)
or
- [date[, date[, ...]]] (Array)
Sets the internal date list. Each date
is assumed to be a UTC date object, and will not be converted. For use with multidate pickers.
getDate¶
Arguments: None
Returns a localized date object representing the internal date object of the first datepicker in the selection. For multidate pickers, returns the latest date selected.
getUTCDate¶
Arguments: None
Returns the internal UTC date object, as-is and unconverted to local time, of the first datepicker in the selection. For multidate pickers, returns the latest date selected.
getDates¶
Arguments: None
Returns a list of localized date objects representing the internal date objects of the first datepicker in the selection. For use with multidate pickers.
getUTCDates¶
Arguments: None
Returns the internal list of UTC date objects, as they are and unconverted to local time, of the first datepicker in the selection. For use with multidate pickers.
setStartDate¶
Arguments:
- startDate (Date)
Sets a new lower date limit on the datepicker. See startDate for valid values.
Omit startDate (or provide an otherwise falsey value) to unset the limit.
setEndDate¶
Arguments:
- endDate (Date)
Sets a new upper date limit on the datepicker. See endDate for valid values.
Omit endDate (or provide an otherwise falsey value) to unset the limit.
setDaysOfWeekDisabled¶
Arguments:
- daysOfWeekDisabled (String|Array)
Sets the days of week that should be disabled. See daysOfWeekDisabled for valid values.
Omit daysOfWeekDisabled (or provide an otherwise falsey value) to unset the disabled days.
Events¶
Datepicker triggers a number of events in certain circumstances. All events have extra data attached to the event object that is passed to any event handlers:
$('.datepicker').datepicker()
.on(picker_event, function(e){
# `e` here contains the extra attributes
});
date
: the relevant Date object, in local timezone. For a multidate picker, this will be the latest date picked.dates
: an Array of Date objects, in local timezone, when using a multidate picker.format([ix], [format])
: a function to make formattingdate
easier.ix
can be the index of a Date in thedates
array to format; if absent, the last date selected will be used.format
can be any format string that datepicker supports; if absent, the format set on the datepicker will be used. Both arguments are optional.
show¶
Fired when the date picker is displayed.
hide¶
Fired when the date picker is hidden.
clearDate¶
Fired when the date is cleared, normally when the “clear” button (enabled with the clearBtn
option) is pressed.
changeDate¶
Fired when the date is changed.
changeYear¶
Fired when the view year is changed from decade view.
changeMonth¶
Fired when the view month is changed from year view.
Keyboard support¶
The datepicker includes keyboard navigation. The “focused date” is kept track of and highlighted (as with mouse hover) during keyboard nav, and is cleared when a date is toggled or the picker is hidden.
up, down, left, right arrow keys¶
By themselves, left/right will move focus backward/forward one day, up/down will move focus back/forward one week.
With the shift key, up/left will move focus backward one month, down/right will move focus forward one month.
With the ctrl key, up/left will move focus backward one year, down/right will move focus forward one year.
Shift+ctrl behaves the same as ctrl – that is, it does not change both month and year simultaneously, only the year.
enter¶
When the picker is visible, enter will toggle the focused date (if there is one). When the picker is not visible, enter will have normal effects – submitting the current form, etc.
When the date is deselected, the clearDate
event is triggered; otherwise, the changeDate
event is triggered. If autoclose
is enabled, the picker will be hidden after selection or deselection.
escape¶
The escape key can be used to clear the focused date and hide and re-show the datepicker; hiding the picker is necessary if the user wants to manually edit the value.
I18N¶
The plugin supports i18n for the month and weekday names and the weekStart
option. The default is English (“en”); other available translations are available in the js/locales/
directory, simply include your desired locale after the plugin. To add more languages, simply add a key to $.fn.datepicker.dates
, before calling .datepicker()
. Example:
$.fn.datepicker.dates['en'] = {
days: ["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"],
daysShort: ["Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", "Sun"],
daysMin: ["Su", "Mo", "Tu", "We", "Th", "Fr", "Sa", "Su"],
months: ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"],
monthsShort: ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"],
today: "Today",
clear: "Clear"
};
Right-to-left languages may also include rtl: true
to make the calendar display appropriately.
If your browser (or those of your users) is displaying characters wrong, chances are the browser is loading the javascript file with a non-unicode encoding. Simply add charset="UTF-8"
to your script
tag:
<script type="text/javascript" src="bootstrap-datepicker.XX.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>
$('.datepicker').datepicker({
language: 'XX'
});
