Disabling the default option is usually done to force the user to select a different option. It’s kinda like setting required on input fields.

@Gazler
Thank you, finally I managed the options to work even with optgroups. Probably I was passing wrong keyword list to the select/4 helper.

Now I can use something like:

[
  [key: "Choose a color", value: "", disabled: true],
  set1: [
    [key: "White", value: "white"],
    [key: "Black", value: "black"],
    [key: "Gray", value: "gray"]
  ],
  set2: [
    [key: "Blue", value: "blue"],
    [key: "Red", value: "red"],
    [key: "Green", value: "green"]
  ]
]

or even shorter

[
  [key: "Choose a color", value: "", disabled: true],
  set1: [:white, :black, :gray],
  set2: [:blue, :red, :green]
]

And with the following function I’m able able to better automate the whole thing. ^^

def collection(options, prompt \\ "Please choose an option", disabled \\ true),
    do: [[key: prompt, value: "", disabled: disabled]] |> Enum.concat(options)

The param “options” can be anything I would pass as options to select/4