How To Remove Required Field And Indicates Required Fields legends

Introduction

This article explains how to solve two common issues when working with forms:

  1. Prevent users from selecting a placeholder option in dropdown fields.
  2. Remove the “* indicates required fields” message above some forms.

Disable Placeholder Options in Select Fields

When a placeholder is added to a dropdown field (via the “Placeholder” setting in the field’s appearance options), it appears correctly but remains selectable. This can lead to users submitting the form without making a real selection.

To prevent this, use the following code:

// Disable placeholder in dropdown choices so it can't be selected
add_filter( 'gform_field_content', function ( $content, $field, $value, $lead_id, $form_id ) {
    if ( $field instanceof GF_Field_Select && $field->placeholder ) {
        // Add 'disabled' and 'selected' attributes to the placeholder option
        $content = preg_replace(
            '/<option\s+class=[\'"]gf_placeholder[\'"]/',
            '<option class="gf_placeholder" disabled selected',
            $content
        );
    }

    return $content;
}, 10, 5 );

This filter:

  • Detects dropdown fields that use a placeholder.
  • Finds the empty-value <option> element.
  • Adds disabled and selected attributes to make it visible but unselectable.

Remove the “* Indicates Required Fields” Message

By default, some forms show a message like:

“* indicates required fields”

This message appears even if the title and description are disabled.

To remove it, add the following code:

add_filter( 'gform_required_legend', '__return_empty_string' );

Refer to this article for more information about the gform_required_legend and gform_field_content for further details on usage and options.

Placement

This code can be used in the functions.php file of the active theme, a custom functions plugin, a custom add-on, or with a code snippets plugin.

See also the PHP section in this article: Where Do I Put This Code?