How should I customize DropdownButtons and DropdownMenuItems in Flutter?

Question

The default DropdownButton with DropdownMenuItems returns a light-grey dropdown. How should I customize the dropdown (e.g. background color, dropdown width)? I can change the style property in both DropdownButton and DropdownMenuItem, like this:

return new DropdownButton(
      value: ...,
      items: ...,
      onChanged: ...,
      style: new TextStyle(
        color: Colors.white,
      ),
    );

but this doesn't change the dropdown's background color.

Should I copy DropdownMenu and extend it? Does Flutter plan to add customization for this widget in the near future?

Collin Jackson · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-02 18:00:58Z

95

You can accomplish this by wrapping the DropdownButton in a Theme widget and overriding the canvasColor.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(new MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      home: new MyHomePage(),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  State createState() => new MyHomePageState();
}

class MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  int _value = 42;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new Scaffold(
      body: new Center(
        child: new Theme(
          data: Theme.of(context).copyWith(
            canvasColor: Colors.blue.shade200,
          ),
          child: new DropdownButton(
            value: _value,
            items: <DropdownMenuItem<int>>[
              new DropdownMenuItem(
                child: new Text('Foo'),
                value: 0,
              ),
              new DropdownMenuItem(
                child: new Text('Bar'),
                value: 42,
              ),
            ],
            onChanged: (int value) {
              setState(() {
                _value = value;
              });
            },
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

answered Oct 2, 2017 at 18:00

Collin Jackson

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4 Comments

Deborah Over a year ago

Thank you. I was stuck on this until I found this answer!

Wak Over a year ago

Thanks for this workaround. It looks like its been an issue for some time: github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/17414

Zuriel Over a year ago

you can also do data: ThemeData.dark(), in the Theme and it will let you have the white / dark drop down or data: ThemeData.light()

Thomas Weller Over a year ago

@Zuriel: you don't even need to do that. You can change the dark or light Theme in the MaterialApp.

FloatingRock · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-14 03:32:28Z

71

I was able to change the background for the Dropdown by wrapping it in a Container with the color property set.

Before:

After:

Here's the code:

Define these values in the widget state:

final items = ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four'];
String selectedValue = 'Four';

then use this code

Container(
  padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 10, vertical: 5),
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
      color: Colors.white, borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(10)),

  // dropdown below..
  child: DropdownButton<String>(
      value: selectedValue,
      onChanged: (String newValue) =>
        setState(() => selectedValue = newValue),
      items: items
          .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>(
              (String value) => DropdownMenuItem<String>(
                    value: value,
                    child: Text(value),
                  ))
          .toList(),

      // add extra sugar..
      icon: Icon(Icons.arrow_drop_down),
      iconSize: 42,
      underline: SizedBox(),
  ),
);

edited Jan 14, 2022 at 3:32

answered Feb 9, 2020 at 8:49

FloatingRock

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5 Comments

Rahul Kushwaha Over a year ago

This is best example what i am looking for

Antonycx Over a year ago

It almost saves my day, but in DropdownButtonFormField this covers the validation section too not only the field.

MetaStack Over a year ago

this was the only real solution I could find. First I found this one: stackoverflow.com/questions/66135853/… but this is much more elegant than those 1500 lines of code. Wrapping it in a container I can get rounded edges on the button and the drop down menu list. Its clunky for sure, as I'm simulating what should be possible natively, but sufficient. Thank you!

Nitin_Narale Over a year ago

is there required to define variable - dropdownValue

FloatingRock Over a year ago

@CrazyMind if you don't define it, the dropdown won't change when an item is selected.

Shady Aziza · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-02 18:41:37Z

41

As Collin said, your DropdownMenuItem will follow your ThemeData class. Not only its backgroundColor will match the canvasColor in your ThemeData class, but also it will follow the same TextStyle.

So, for a quick example:

new ThemeData(
        fontFamily: "Encode Sans", //my custom font
        canvasColor: _turquoise, //my custom color
//other theme data)

Furthermore, if you want to control the width of the menu, you can feed its child property a new Container and add the desired width, check the following GIF, I started with width: 100.0 then hot reloaded after changing it to 200.0, notice how the width was manipulated, just make sure you use a suitable width so that you do not get overflow problems later on when you use the menu within a more complex layout.

class TestPage extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(
        title:new Text ("Test"),
      ),
      body: new Center(
        child: new DropdownButton(items: new List.generate(20, (int index){
          return new DropdownMenuItem(child: new Container(
            child: new Text ("Item#$index"),
            width: 200.0, //200.0 to 100.0
          ));
        })
            , onChanged: null)
      ),
    );
  }
}

edited Oct 2, 2017 at 18:41

answered Oct 2, 2017 at 18:24

Shady Aziza

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3 Comments

Mary Over a year ago

Do you know if there is a way to override the padding (left and right) for each DropdownMenuItem? The ThemeData doesn't have a padding property. I tried setting my DropdownMenuItem's padding to negative but it's not allowed. Thanks!

Shady Aziza Over a year ago

@Mary ThemeData is about the visuals (coloring, text styling..etc) and not about positioning. I believe you want to center your items in the dropdown, so all you need to do is to wrap the Text widget in the answer within a Center widget. However, if you need to customize the positioning of the items such that they are not centered, you will need to wrap the Text widget inside a Row which is wrapped inside a Padding widget, and then customize the padding property as you want.

Shady Aziza Over a year ago

You can replace the Row in the previous comment with a Container as well, and you will achieve the same result, if there is anything that is not clear enough, please let me know.

Adhokshaja Madhwaraj · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-21 13:59:34Z

19

You can do something very simple in the latest version of Flutter.

The DropdownButton class has an inbuilt variable called 'dropdownColor' which can be assigned any color you need directly, without changing any 'ThemeData'. Automatically changes the color of the dropdown menu items as well.

answered Jun 21, 2020 at 13:59

Adhokshaja Madhwaraj

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1 Comment

Kamlesh Over a year ago

I have big application which has more than 50 dropdownbuttonformfield. So I cannot change them one-by-one. Its very time consuming work. Can we do it by adding a global themedata? If yes, please suggest, how can we do. Thanks.

Abir Ahsan · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-17 09:54:17Z

15

Use this for color

 DropdownButtonFormField(
              items: null,
              onChanged: null,
              dropdownColor: Colors.red,
            ),

answered Feb 17, 2021 at 9:54

Abir Ahsan

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4 Comments

Kamlesh Over a year ago

I have big application which has more than 50 dropdownbuttonformfield. So I cannot change them one-by-one. Its very time consuming work. Can we do it by adding a global themedata? If yes, please suggest, how can we do. Thanks.

Abir Ahsan Over a year ago

@Kamlesh you can also create a reusable custom dropdown.

Kamlesh Over a year ago

Thank for your quick reply. Yes, we can develop reusable custom dropdown but we still have to replace it on more than 50 existing dropdownbuttonformfield elements in the app. Thanks for your suggestion :)

Vonarian Over a year ago

I randomly came across your comment and noticed I needed the FormField one! Thanks :D

TuMahler · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-13 22:08:44Z

14

If you want the DropdownButton to fill the space that it is in, use the property isExpanded and set it to true

DropdownButton<String>(
   isExpanded: true,
)

answered Mar 13, 2020 at 22:08

TuMahler

2312 silver badges4 bronze badges

2 Comments

Manikandan Selvanathan Over a year ago

Not relevant to the question.

ListenSoftware Louise Ai Agent Over a year ago

I wrapped the dropdownbutton with a container and set the containers color

AnasSafi · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-06 00:20:24Z

4

You can wrap it with container like this:

Container(
  margin: const EdgeInsets.all(15.0),
  padding: const EdgeInsets.only(left: 10.0, right: 10.0),
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
      color: Colors.white,
      border: Border.all(color: Colors.white)
  ),
  child: DropdownButton(
    dropdownColor: Colors.white,
    style: TextStyle(
      color: Colors.black,
      backgroundColor: Colors.white,
    ),
    value: 'ar',
    items: [
      DropdownMenuItem(child: Text('English'), value: 'en'),
      DropdownMenuItem(child: Text('العربية'), value: 'ar'),
    ],
  ),
)

The output:

answered Jun 6, 2021 at 0:20

AnasSafi

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Comments

Wimukthi Rajapaksha · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-15 01:06:05Z

https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/material/DropdownButton/style.html will help you to figure out some stylings.

DropdownButton(
  dropdownColor: Colors.grey,
  value: this.repeatType,
  onChanged: (String? value) {
    print(value);
    setState(() {
      this.repeatType = value!;
    });
  },
  selectedItemBuilder: (BuildContext context) {
    return this.repeatTypes.map((String value) {
      return Text(
        this.repeatType,
        style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
      );
    }).toList();
  },
  items: this
      .repeatTypes
      .map((item) => DropdownMenuItem(
            child: Text(
              item,
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.green),
            ),
            value: item,
          ))
      .toList())

Appex · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-03 15:40:09Z

2

you can use the dropdown_button2 package. You can use the dropdownDecoration property to customize the dropdown menu appearance. This is the best package I found to fully customize a DropdownButton

edited Aug 3, 2022 at 15:40

answered Aug 3, 2022 at 15:39

Appex

212 bronze badges

Comments

Ravi Kumar · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-08 17:20:29Z

To create own custom drop down widget you can use below code value - selected dropdown value items - list of dropdownitem you can pass onChanged - pass function that will be invoked when you select from dropdown

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class SDropDown extends StatefulWidget {
  final String value;
  final List<DropdownMenuItem<String>> items;
  final Function(String?)? onChanged;
  const SDropDown[enter image description here][1](
      {Key? key, required this.value, required this.items, this.onChanged})
      : super(key: key);

  @override
  _SDropDownState createState() => _SDropDownState();
}

class _SDropDownState extends State<SDropDown> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    ThemeData theme = Theme.of(context);
    return Container(
      padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 10, vertical: 3),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
          color: Colors.white, borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(10)),
      child: DropdownButton<String>(
        isExpanded: true,
        value: widget.value,
        items: widget.items,
        onChanged: widget.onChanged,
        underline: const SizedBox(),
        dropdownColor: theme.primaryColor,
        style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.black),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Wahab Khan Jadon · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-25 07:29:41Z

I am using following class

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:safe/utils/app_ui.dart';

class LabeledDropdown<T> extends StatefulWidget {
  final String heading;
  final List<DropdownMenuItem<T>> items;
  final T? value;
  final ValueChanged<T?> onChanged;

  const LabeledDropdown({
    super.key,
    required this.heading,
    required this.items,
    required this.value,
    required this.onChanged,
  });

  @override
  State<LabeledDropdown<T>> createState() => _LabeledDropdownState<T>();
}

class _LabeledDropdownState<T> extends State<LabeledDropdown<T>> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Column(
      crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
      children: [
        Text(widget.heading, style: const TextStyle(fontSize: 14)),
        const SizedBox(height: 8),
        DropdownButtonFormField<T>(
          decoration: InputDecoration(
            fillColor: Colors.white, // Background color
            filled: true, // Enable filling
            border: OutlineInputBorder(
              borderSide: BorderSide.none, // Remove border
              borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(
                Radius.circular(cornerRadius),
              ), //set border radius
            ),
          ),
          value: widget.value,
          items: widget.items,
          onChanged: widget.onChanged,
          hint: const Text("Select an option"),
        ),
      ],
    );
  }
}

no need to wrap DropdownButtonFormField inside a Container to set borders and change the background color... you can set the fillColor and filled properties to change the background color ...

you can use this

 child: LabeledDropdown<String>(
          heading: 'District*',
          items:
              _options.map((option) {
                return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
                  value: option,
                  child: Text(option),
                );
              }).toList(),
          value: _selectedValue,
          onChanged: (value) {
            setState(() {
              _selectedValue = value;
            });
          },
        ),

where options are

    final List<String> _options = [
    'Option One',
    'Option two',
    'Option three',
    'Option four',
  ];

and here are the end result

Aarif Ali · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-30 04:27:29Z

I recently upgraded my Flutter SDK from version 3.0.0 to 3.22.2, and I noticed that the background color of my DropdownButtonFormField has changed automatically. I did not make any changes to the code, and it was working perfectly before the upgrade. Below is my code for the

please suggest me best solution for the Dropdown background color

DropdownButtonFormField:

DropdownButtonFormField<String>(
  decoration: const InputDecoration(
    fillColor: Colors.transparent,
    filled: true,
    contentPadding: EdgeInsets.only(right: 10, left: 10),
    border: OutlineInputBorder(
      borderSide: BorderSide(color: Color(0xFFE6E5E9), width: 1),
      borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(
        Radius.circular(10.0),
      ),
    ),
    focusedBorder: OutlineInputBorder(
      borderSide: BorderSide(color: Color(0xFF09304B), width: 1),
      borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(
        Radius.circular(10.0),
      ),
    ),
    enabledBorder: OutlineInputBorder(
      borderSide: BorderSide(color: Color(0xFFE6E5E9), width: 1),
      borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(
        Radius.circular(10.0),
      ),
    ),
  ),
  elevation: 1,
  validator: (value) {
    print("sdfds");
  },
  isExpanded: true,
  hint: const Text(
    "Select Payment Purpose*",
    style: TextStyle(
      color: Color(0xFF0F0F18),
      fontWeight: FontWeight.w400,
      fontFamily: 'inter',
      fontSize: 14,
    ),
  ),
  iconSize: 30,
  iconEnabledColor: Colors.black,
  icon: const Icon(
    Icons.keyboard_arrow_down_sharp,
    size: 20,
  ),
  value: selectedValue,
  items: Constants.transactionPurposeList
      .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((TransactionPurposeList value) {
    return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
      value: value.name!,
      child: Text(value.name!),
    );
  }).toList(),
  onChanged: (value) {
    setState(() {
      selectedValue = value;
      isSelectPurpose = false;
    });
  },
)

transactionPurposeList access from Rest API

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