MUI Select Lacks Basic Placeholder and Clear Functionality #49539

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1. mordeccai

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   status: waiting for maintainerThese issues haven't been looked at yet by a maintainer.These issues haven't been looked at yet by a maintainer.

   on Oct 23, 2026
2. brijeshb42

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   ai: needs-triageRequest AI issue triage and retriage on human replies.Request AI issue triage and retriage on human replies.

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   type: enhancementIt’s an improvement, but we can’t make up our mind whether it's a bug fix or a new feature.It’s an improvement, but we can’t make up our mind whether it's a bug fix or a new feature.

   on Oct 27, 2026
4. mordeccai commented on Oct 27, 2026

   

   mordeccai

   on Oct 27, 2026

   Last edited by mordeccai

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   Thanks for the triage.

   My proposal is to support two simple props on Select:

   • placeholder: Displays placeholder text when no value is selected, without requiring displayEmpty and renderValue.
   • clearable: Provides a built-in clear button that resets the selection to an empty value.

   My use case is the standard non-native Select. The existing displayEmpty + renderValue approach works, but requires unnecessary boilerplate for something as basic as displaying a placeholder.

   These are basic features that shouldn't require custom rendering or additional components. The goal is to reduce boilerplate and make Select easier to use out of the box.

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7. brijeshb42

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9. mui

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10. brijeshb42

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11. github-actions commented on Oct 30, 2026

    

    github-actionsBot

    on Oct 30, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

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    This issue asks for two features on Select, a placeholder prop and a clearable prop. Both are already requested in open issues:

    • Clearable Select: [Select][material][joy] add clearable prop to clear value #38153 ([Select][material][joy] add clearable prop to clear value) asks for the same thing, a single clearable prop that shows a clear icon and resets the value. That thread already discusses possible API shapes, including a clearable prop, and the issue is still open.
    • placeholder on Select: [material-ui][Select] Simplify placeholders, consistent sizing, and styling #49517 ([material-ui][Select] Simplify placeholders, consistent sizing, and styling) asks for <Select placeholder="…"> so you don't need displayEmpty + renderValue, which is the same proposal as in your follow-up comment. [docs][select] placeholder prop is omitted #44821 covers the related documentation gap and also has a request to add the prop.

    Select doesn't support placeholder today, and the Select docs say so in a warning: "Unlike input components, the placeholder prop is not available in Select. To add a placeholder, refer to the placeholder section below." So this is a known missing feature, not a defect.

    Workarounds until either feature exists:

    • Placeholder: use displayEmpty with renderValue and return your placeholder markup when the value is empty. This is the approach in the Placeholder demo.
    • Clear: add an empty-value MenuItem (for example "None"), or put a clear IconButton in endAdornment that sets the value back to ''. A demo of this approach is linked in [Select][material][joy] add clearable prop to clear value #38153. These are suggestions I haven't tested.

    Next steps

    • Maintainers: consider closing this as a duplicate of [Select][material][joy] add clearable prop to clear value #38153 (clearable) and [material-ui][Select] Simplify placeholders, consistent sizing, and styling #49517 (placeholder).
    • You can upvote or comment on those two issues to show demand. Votes there are what decide whether these features are prioritized.

    ---

    Agent-generated diagnosis; conclusions have not been independently verified. Workflow run.
    🤖 Triage · Claude Code · claude-opus-5-5 · high effort · 10 turns · 0m26s · $0.17 · run
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