Missing documentation for the Number Field

• guy_b

• October 10, 2018 at 7:50 am

There seems to be no documentation for the Number Field, or examples of how to customise the number formats.

Is this just an oversight, or has it been excluded for some other reason?

• djcottrell

• October 12, 2018 at 1:49 pm

There is no need for documentation. They just give you an HTML5 input type=”number” which as a step, min, and max attributes with they provide access to. This is not something custom that ACF has added to their system. You can read more about it below.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/number

If you are looking to create custom filtration you will have to look at some type of validation script whether it be html5 validation or a jQuery library.

• guy_b

• October 13, 2018 at 1:41 am

Thanks for chipping in, however this wasn’t really the point of the question.

ACF itself includes a Number Field in the available choices, so it is natural for people to come here to the ACF website to read about it, or see if there are any configurable options available.

Even if there are no options, the fact that the field type is simply missing from the ACF documentation seems like it must be an oversight, as I can’t imagine it has been excluded deliberately for any reason.

Perhaps I should open a ticket and mention it, someone probably just forgot to add a reference to it since it’s such a basic field.

Also, it would be considered a public service if ACF included some examples of how to add things like commas or other currency notation right here in their documentation, instead making their users go hunting for answers all over the internet, even a couple of links such as the one you kindly provided would be better than nothing.

• djcottrell

• October 13, 2018 at 2:00 am

The point I was trying to make is that you cant do what you are looking to do. The type=”number” field does not allow the use of anything other than numbers. If you want to use commas, periods or any other symbol you have to use a text field and prevent the use of letters. ACF is not going to add documentation for something that is not possible.

• guy_b

• October 13, 2018 at 3:31 am

Lol! It’s always nice to chat to someone equally pedantic as I am 🙂

I get that, however the point I am making is that ACF includes a number field, yet there is no reference to this field in the documentation.

That means when people come here to ACF to try and learn about the field which is available as an option to choose from in the Field Groups, there is nothing to guide them about its use at all.

The field exists, it should, in my opinion, at least be mentioned, and the information which you have have shared, and which is properly documented in the MDN library and other places, could very easily be added to the information here in the ACF documentation.

I have subsequently learnt about the restrictions and reasoning behind the logic of how the number field works as I found the information I needed by searching the internet, and one of the resources I found was the MDN article you linked to earlier.

It is in fact possible to format the numbers in the number field by using php, although whether or not this is a good idea is debatable, and my own conclusion is that it is not a good idea for the reasons outlined in the MDN article.

The fact remains, that ACF has included the field in the available options, and because it exists it should be documented so that people don’t have to beat around the bush to learn what it is most suitable to be used for.

None of us know anything until we learn, once we know the answer to the question we gain understanding. I don’t understand why a field provided by the tool I have purchased is completely without any mention in the documentation. It’s an omission.

I really appreciate you taking the time to chat to me, but I think we are not really talking about the thing from the same perspective.

Hopefully this conversation will make it easier for others who are as befuddled as I was initially to find the information they are looking for, although it would be preferable if ACF took a moment to just add some information to their docs because the field exists.