When dateInput is set to NA by default: Warning: Couldn't coerce the 'value' argument to a date string with format yyyy-mm-dd

[isaactpetersen]

System details

Output of sessionInfo():

> sessionInfo()
R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16 ucrt)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 10 x64 (build 19045)

Matrix products: default


locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.utf8  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.utf8   
[3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.utf8 LC_NUMERIC=C                          
[5] LC_TIME=English_United States.utf8    

time zone: America/Chicago
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices datasets  utils     methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] shiny_1.9.1

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] tidyselect_1.2.1    golem_0.5.1         dplyr_1.1.4         fastmap_1.2.0       promises_1.3.0     
 [6] shinyjs_2.1.0       digest_0.6.37       timechange_0.3.0    mime_0.12           lifecycle_1.0.4    
[11] ellipsis_0.3.2      processx_3.8.4      magrittr_2.0.3      compiler_4.3.1      rlang_1.1.4        
[16] config_0.3.2        sass_0.4.9          tools_4.3.1         geoloc_0.0.0.9500   utf8_1.2.4         
[21] yaml_2.3.10         knitr_1.48          fortunes_1.5-4      htmlwidgets_1.6.4   bit_4.5.0          
[26] pkgbuild_1.4.5      curl_5.2.3          here_1.0.1          xml2_1.3.6          pkgload_1.4.0      
[31] miniUI_0.1.1.1      withr_3.0.2         purrr_1.0.2         desc_1.4.3          fansi_1.0.6        
[36] roxygen2_7.3.2      urlchecker_1.0.1    profvis_0.4.0       xtable_1.8-4        cli_3.6.3          
[41] rmarkdown_2.28      generics_0.1.3      remotes_2.5.0       rstudioapi_0.17.1   sessioninfo_1.2.2  
[46] DBI_1.2.3           cachem_1.1.0        stringr_1.5.1       vctrs_0.6.5         devtools_2.4.5     
[51] jsonlite_1.8.9      callr_3.7.6         hms_1.1.3           bit64_4.5.2         attempt_0.3.1      
[56] testthat_3.2.1.1    jquerylib_0.1.4     glue_1.8.0          ps_1.8.1            DT_0.33            
[61] lubridate_1.9.3     stringi_1.8.4       later_1.3.2         pool_1.0.4          tibble_3.2.1       
[66] pillar_1.9.0        htmltools_0.5.8.1   brio_1.1.5          R6_2.5.1            rprojroot_2.0.4    
[71] evaluate_1.0.1      RMariaDB_1.3.2      memoise_2.0.1       renv_1.0.11         httpuv_1.6.15      
[76] bslib_0.8.0         Rcpp_1.0.13         uuid_1.2-1          shinyvalidate_0.1.3 xfun_0.48          
[81] fs_1.6.4            usethis_3.0.0       pkgconfig_2.0.3

Example application or steps to reproduce the problem

dateInput(
   inputId = ns("dob"),
   label = "What is your date of birth? (MM/DD/YYYY)",
   format = "mm-dd-yyyy",
   value = as.Date(NA))

Here is the warning it creates:

Warning: Couldn't coerce the `value` argument to a date string with format yyyy-mm-dd

Describe the problem in detail

I am trying to have a dateInput where the date is not selected by default. However, if I set value = as.Date(NA), as recommended here, it results in a warning (see above). Many other users have identified this issue (see links below):

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69848255/warning-couldnt-coerce-the-start-argument-to-a-date-string-with-format-yyyy
• https://www.reddit.com/r/RStudio/comments/1fzxvmn/how_to_avoid_couldnt_coerce_the_value_argument_to/
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63052086/during-execution-of-shinyapp-null-is-interpreted-as-na-inside-a-function
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68875961/how-to-resolve-calendar-error-in-r-shiny

The issue seems similar to:

• Allow dateInput to have an unspecified value #896
• Unspecified value for dateInput() and min/max parameter set breaks server side uiOutput() #3263

Thanks in advance!

[nirguk]

Note to myself, this seem to be because value propogates as null, and this causes the

`data-initial-date` = value

to omit data-initial-date whereas it seems the preferred behaviour would be to repeat the text a la

`data-initial-date` = "data-initial-date" 

as this will cause the tag to be present, and the visual result is a blank field in the input