HTML/PHP display current date in html date input - php

Question

I am using a date input type to select a date in my PHP project.
Now everytime I submit the form I want to display the date in the input that has been selected.
This is what I've tried:
<?php $date = $_GET['date']; ?>
<input placeholder="<?php $date ?>" type="date" name="date" id="date" />
But unfortunately this doesn't seem to work.
Anyone has any idea if my goal is possible?
Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can't set a placeholder to <input type="date"/>. See the following information from HTML specification:
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked, dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, inputmode, maxlength, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, size, src, and width.
https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/forms.html#date-state-%28type=date%29
You have to set the date as value like the following:
<?php $date = $_GET['date']; ?>
<input type="date" name="date" id="date" value="<?= $date ?>" />
An example code:
<input placeholder="2011-01-01" type="date" id="date"/>
<input value="2011-01-01" type="date" id="date"/>

Answer 2

You need to echo that variable, or else nothing will display.
Like this:
//Shorthand
<?=$date ?>
//Not shorthand with print
<?php print $date; ?>
//Not shorthand with echo
<?php echo $date; ?>
People would probably prefer echo instead of print.

Answer 3

You need to use the variable inside value
<?php
$date = isset($_GET['date']) ? $_GET['date'] : '';
?>
<input value="<?php echo $date; ?>" type="date" name="date" id="date" />

Answer 4

You need check the form submission data first, before fetching the data in PHP. Request you to check form data and submission method.
I would like to suggest use $_REQUEST['date'] instead of $_GET.
If this does not work, let us see your form code?

Answer 5

In addition to the answers where the echo was mentioned as solution, you should add the following after $date:
<?php $date = isset($_GET['date']) ? $_GET['date'] : false; ?>
When $date is not found, this will result in not giving a warning message. If you don't, and the $_GET['date'] can't be found you'll get a undefined variable warning message..