method

label

v6.1.7.7 - Show latest stable - Class: ActionView::Helpers::FormHelper

label(object_name, method, content_or_options = nil, options = nil, &block)

public

Returns a label tag tailored for labelling an input field for a specified attribute (identified by method) on an object assigned to the template (identified by object). The text of label will default to the attribute name unless a translation is found in the current I18n locale (through helpers.label.<modelname>.<attribute>) or you specify it explicitly. Additional options on the label tag can be passed as a hash with options. These options will be tagged onto the HTML as an HTML element attribute as in the example shown, except for the :value option, which is designed to target labels for radio_button tags (where the value is used in the ID of the input tag).

Examples

label(:post, :title)
# => <label for="post_title">Title</label>

You can localize your labels based on model and attribute names. For example you can define the following in your locale (e.g. en.yml)

helpers:
  label:
    post:
      body: "Write your entire text here"

Which then will result in

label(:post, :body)
# => <label for="post_body">Write your entire text here</label>

Localization can also be based purely on the translation of the attribute-name (if you are using ActiveRecord):

activerecord:
  attributes:
    post:
      cost: "Total cost"

label(:post, :cost)
# => <label for="post_cost">Total cost</label>

label(:post, :title, "A short title")
# => <label for="post_title">A short title</label>

label(:post, :title, "A short title", class: "title_label")
# => <label for="post_title" class="title_label">A short title</label>

label(:post, :privacy, "Public Post", value: "public")
# => <label for="post_privacy_public">Public Post</label>

label(:post, :cost) do |translation|
  content_tag(:span, translation, class: "cost_label")
end
# => <label for="post_cost"><span class="cost_label">Total cost</span></label>

label(:post, :cost) do |builder|
  content_tag(:span, builder.translation, class: "cost_label")
end
# => <label for="post_cost"><span class="cost_label">Total cost</span></label>

label(:post, :terms) do
  raw('Accept <a href="/terms">Terms</a>.')
end
# => <label for="post_terms">Accept <a href="/terms">Terms</a>.</label>

# File actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb, line 1122
      def label(object_name, method, content_or_options = nil, options = nil, &block)
        Tags::Label.new(object_name, method, self, content_or_options, options).render(&block)
      end

4Notes

Translations of label method

Gampleman · Apr 8, 20091 thank

The label method won't use your translated attribute names - which seems like big disadvantage of this method.

For a quick workaround, try using this in a helper: def label(object_name, method, text = nil, options = {}) text ||= object_name.classify.constantize.human_attribute_name(method.to_s) ActionView::Helpers::InstanceTag.new(object_name, method, self, options.delete(:object)).to_label_tag(text, options) end

I didn't properly test this, but it seems to work.

Unusual block calling

eric_programmer · Jun 15, 20111 thank

It is important to note that the block form of this method is unlike any other block form in Rails. You would expect this to work:

<%= f.label :terms_and_conditions do %>
Accept <%= link_to_page 'Terms and Conditions' %>
<% end %>

But doing this ends up messing up the form (I ended up with the form repeating itself). Instead you need to do:

<%= f.label :terms_and_conditions do
'Accept ' + link_to_page('Terms and Conditions')
end %>

Which is really only mildly better than not using the block form:

<%= f.label :terms_and_conditions,
'Accept ' + link_to_page('Terms and Conditions') %>

You are actually better of using capture if your code lends itself to the first non-working form:

<%= f.label :terms_and_conditions, (capture do %>
Accept <%= link_to_page 'Terms and Conditions' %>
<% end) %>

Or if you prefer brackets to parenthesis you can do:

<%= f.label :terms_and_conditions, capture { %>
Accept <%= link_to_page 'Terms and Conditions' %>
<% } %>

customizing text when using label in a form

bparanj · Apr 8, 2011

Instead of the default text Email you can change it to "Primary Email" like this: f.label :email, "Primary Email"

Save yourself a little typing

lazylester · Mar 26, 2015

We often have a form with a select box that selects a model association. So for example to select a colour, when there is an associated Colour model, a select box will typically select :colour_id.

In this case, ActionView automatically humanizes :colour_id to produce "Colour" as the label text.