<select multiple ng-options> do not support default/empty option

[martin-g]

http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng.directive:select shows an example (Color (null allowed)) of a select with ng-options and an option with empty value.

At http://plnkr.co/edit/dMKSt7P4ZPcWgBkpGvPI?p=preview I have an example that shows the functionality stops working if I add 'multiple' attribute to the select.

It also has plain select (not managed by Angular) that shows the empty value is supported for select.multiple.

[martin-g]

This issue may be related to #3337 and #3230

[siddii]

Here is the plunkr for the fix showing it works - http://plnkr.co/edit/jDijgjJ0EZLFUGIkTKDs?p=preview

[martin-g]

Confirmed!
Looks as desired!

[tbosch]

Hi @martin-g,
as I think over it, this does not make sense.

In a drop down box, you need an additional element to unselect a previously selected value.
However, in a multiple select, you are able to unselect any element by pressing Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Command+Click (Mac). This should work in any browser and is the default behavior of HTML.

So why do you need that additional entry, what is your use case?

[tbosch]

Closing this for now. Please comment if you have a usecase that I overlooked.

[martin-g]

Hi @tbosch ,

I had to use it in a mobile/phone application.
It is not so easy to use Ctrl there.

[martin-g]

C'mon, don't ignore the UX for mobile applications!

[tbosch]

Hi,
mobile browsers have their own UI for select multiple.

I didn't check older browsers. If they don't do what you need you would need to create a workaround for them, as this would be a browser bug.

[geekmj]

This change is not available in any version of angular js. Why so?

[bretongoers]

@tbosch The unselect allows for nullable values if I have read the docs correctly. With multiple-select, the value is NOT nulled out when you deselect items. Instead it is set as an empty array.

In my situation, I needed to check these element's models for null to display certain items on screen. Because multiple-select is not nullable, I had to set a $watch on the relevant model to null it out when the array is empty. That might be a valid use-case for allowing an option that is nullable in a multiple-select.

Unless there is another way to do this better, it seems like a lot of trouble to set a $watch to null that value out

[tbosch]

Well, you could check for an empty array, right?

[bretongoers]

Sure there are workarounds. Though in the context of what I was doing this in, I was using an ng-repeat with an ng-if to display several items from a model based on their value being null or populated. So it adds an extra, separate check for a very specific case because multi-select don't go to null.

I'm sure there are better ways of accomplishing it and there are obviously easy ways around it, just throwing it out there as a possibility :)