How to use Checkbox inside Select Option

Question

The client has given me a design which has a Select Option menu containing a checkbox together with the item name as individual items in the list. Is there anyway possible to add a checkbox inside a Select Option menu?

NB: Developer needs to add his own id to make the menu effective, I only need the HTML CSS code if it is possible.

Answer 1

You cannot place checkbox inside select element but you can get the same functionality by using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Here is a possible working solution. The explanation follows.

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Code:

var expanded = false;

function showCheckboxes() {
  var checkboxes = document.getElementById("checkboxes");
  if (!expanded) {
    checkboxes.style.display = "block";
    expanded = true;
  } else {
    checkboxes.style.display = "none";
    expanded = false;
  }
}

.multiselect {
  width: 200px;
}

.selectBox {
  position: relative;
}

.selectBox select {
  width: 100%;
  font-weight: bold;
}

.overSelect {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
}

#checkboxes {
  display: none;
  border: 1px #dadada solid;
}

#checkboxes label {
  display: block;
}

#checkboxes label:hover {
  background-color: #1e90ff;
}

<form>
  <div class="multiselect">
    <div class="selectBox" onclick="showCheckboxes()">
      <select>
        <option>Select an option</option>
      </select>
      <div class="overSelect"></div>
    </div>
    <div id="checkboxes">
      <label for="one">
        <input type="checkbox" id="one" />First checkbox</label>
      <label for="two">
        <input type="checkbox" id="two" />Second checkbox</label>
      <label for="three">
        <input type="checkbox" id="three" />Third checkbox</label>
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

Explanation:

At first we create a select element that shows text "Select an option", and empty element that covers (overlaps) the select element (<div class="overSelect">). We do not want the user to click on the select element - it would show an empty options. To overlap the element with other element we use CSS position property with value relative | absolute.

To add the functionality we specify a JavaScript function that is called when the user clicks on the div that contains our select element (<div class="selectBox" onclick="showCheckboxes()">).

We also create div that contains our checkboxes and style it using CSS. The above mentioned JavaScript function just changes <div id="checkboxes"> value of CSS display property from "none" to "block" and vice versa.

The solution was tested in the following browsers: Internet Explorer 10, Firefox 34, Chrome 39. The browser needs to have JavaScript enabled.

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More information:

CSS positioning

How to overlay one div over another div

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_positioning.asp

CSS display property

http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_class_display.asp