Change Placeholder Text after Initialization

Updated on Dec 10, 2025

Environment

Product	Progress® Kendo UI® ComboBox for jQuery
Product Version	2019.2.514

Description

How can I change the placeholder text of a Kendo UI ComboBox after it has already been initialized?

Solution

To set the placeholder text of the Kendo UI ComboBox, refer to its input element and change the placeholder attribute by using jQuery.

javascript

     var comboBox = $("#combobox").data("kendoComboBox");
     $(comboBox.input).attr('placeholder', '--select--');

The following example demonstrates the full implementation of the suggested approach.

    <input id="combobox" />
    <script>
      $(document).ready(function () {

        $("#combobox").kendoComboBox({
          placeholder: "Select..."
        });

        var comboBox = $("#combobox").data("kendoComboBox");
        $(comboBox.input).attr('placeholder', '--select--');

      });
    </script>

See Also

• API Reference of the input Element
• Official MDN Web Documentation of the placeholder Attribute