How to add a default blank option to a select input field using laravelcollective?

Question

I have a form in which the user can optionally select an option and if the user does not choose an option I need the default value of 'null' be submitted to database. I am using laravel 5.1 so my input field is as follows:

           <div class="form-group col-lg-4">
                {!! Form::label('cat1', 'CAT Tool 1', ['class' => 'control-label']) !!}
                <div class="input-group">
                    <div class="input-group-addon">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-cog"></span>
                    </div>
                    {!! Form::select('cat1', $cats , null , ['class' => 'form-control']) !!}
                </div>
            </div>

Here the $cats array is an array of CAT Tools ($cats=['SDL Trados', 'Deja Vu', 'WordFast', 'OmegaT', 'Fluency'];). I have similar fields in which an array of database attributes are returned (e.g. In the controller create method I have $languages=Language::lists('fa_name', 'id');). How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

The listsmethod used to return an array but as of Laravel 5.1 it returns a collection so I needed to convert the $languages to an array like this:

$languages=Language::lists('fa_name', 'id')->all();

or

$languages=Language::lists('fa_name', 'id')->toArray();

Next in the view I can use the following:

  {!! Form::select('from1', [null => 'Select your language'] + $languages, null , ['class' => 'form-control']) !!}

which will add an empty option to the select field.