# {html_select_time}
`{html_select_time}` is a [custom function](index.md)
that creates time dropdowns for you. It can display any or all of: hour,
minute, second and meridian.
The `time` attribute can have different formats. It can be a unique
timestamp, a string of the format `YYYYMMDDHHMMSS` or a string that is
parseable by PHP's [`strtotime()`](https://www.php.net/strtotime).
## Attributes
| Attribute Name | Default | Description |
|-----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| prefix | Time\_ | What to prefix the var name with |
| time | current [timestamp](https://www.php.net/function.time) | What date/time to pre-select. Accepts [timestamp](https://www.php.net/function.time), [DateTime](https://www.php.net/class.DateTime), mysql timestamp or any string parsable by [`strtotime()`](https://www.php.net/strtotime). If an array is given, the attributes field\_array and prefix are used to identify the array elements to extract hour, minute, second and meridian from. |
| display\_hours | TRUE | Whether or not to display hours |
| display\_minutes | TRUE | Whether or not to display minutes |
| display\_seconds | TRUE | Whether or not to display seconds |
| display\_meridian | TRUE | Whether or not to display meridian (am/pm) |
| use\_24\_hours | TRUE | Whether or not to use 24 hour clock |
| minute\_interval | 1 | Number interval in minute dropdown |
| second\_interval | 1 | Number interval in second dropdown |
| hour\_format | \%02d | What format the hour label should be in (sprintf) |
| hour\_value\_format | \%20d | What format the hour value should be in (sprintf) |
| minute\_format | \%02d | What format the minute label should be in (sprintf) |
| minute\_value\_format | \%20d | What format the minute value should be in (sprintf) |
| second\_format | \%02d | What format the second label should be in (sprintf) |
| second\_value\_format | \%20d | What format the second value should be in (sprintf) |
| field\_array | n/a | Outputs values to array of this name |
| all\_extra | null | Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given |
| hour\_extra | null | Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given |
| minute\_extra | null | Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given |
| second\_extra | null | Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given |
| meridian\_extra | null | Adds extra attributes to select/input tags if given |
| field\_separator | \\n | String printed between different fields |
| option\_separator | \\n | String printed between different options of a field |
| all\_id | null | Adds id-attribute to all select/input tags if given |
| hour\_id | null | Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given |
| minute\_id | null | Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given |
| second\_id | null | Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given |
| meridian\_id | null | Adds id-attribute to select/input tags if given |
| all\_empty | null | If supplied then the first element of any select-box has this value as it's label and "" as it's value. This is useful to make the select-boxes read "Please select" for example. |
| hour\_empty | null | If supplied then the first element of the hour's select-box has this value as it's label and "" as it's value. This is useful to make the select-box read "Please select an hour" for example. |
| minute\_empty | null | If supplied then the first element of the minute's select-box has this value as it's label and "" as it's value. This is useful to make the select-box read "Please select an minute" for example. |
| second\_empty | null | If supplied then the first element of the second's select-box has this value as it's label and "" as it's value. This is useful to make the select-box read "Please select an second" for example. |
| meridian\_empty | null | If supplied then the first element of the meridian's select-box has this value as it's label and "" as it's value. This is useful to make the select-box read "Please select an meridian" for example. |
## Examples
```smarty
{html_select_time use_24_hours=true}
```
At 9:20 and 23 seconds in the morning the template above would output:
```html
```
See also [`$smarty.now`](../language-variables/language-variables-smarty.md#smartynow-languagevariablessmartynow),
[`{html_select_date}`](language-function-html-select-date.md) and the
[date tips page](../../appendixes/tips.md#dates).