How to Create Conditional Drop Down Lists in WordPress Forms

Learn how to create conditional drop down lists in WordPress. We'll show a simple, code-free method to make a car make and model WordPress forms drop down list.

Approximate read time: 5.5 minutes

Looking for a way to create conditional drop down lists in forms?

Don’t know what a conditional drop down list is?

Consider an auto dealer form with a car make and model drop down list. 

A user selects the year of their car, then the make, then the model from a list of options that only apply to the year/make they have chosen already. 

You may have also heard these forms called chained select or dynamic drop down lists.

This functionality is super helpful when creating forms to handle price estimates, quotes, payments, etc. It's also great for end-users because they won't have to filter through many irrelevant options.

With Formidable Forms, you can set up a WordPress dropdown list from a user-friendly interface - no need to mess with complex queries or custom code solutions.

Keep reading for a step-by-step guide on using a dynamic drop down list WordPress plugin to make your drop downs more interactive.

Get Formidable Forms Now!

How to create conditional drop down lists in forms

Before digging into the detailed step-by-step tutorial, let's go through a high-level look at how cascading dropdown forms work with Formidable Forms as a dropdown list plugin for WordPress.

1. Create a "data form" to house all the data that will populate your cascading drop downs. End-users will not interact with this form directly - it's just there to hold the data.
2. Add entries to populate your "data form" with the needed data. You can save time by importing a CSV rather than manually entering all your data if you have a ton of data.
3. Create a second "end user form." This is the form that your human visitors will interact with.
4. Add lookup fields to the "end user form" to pull data from the "data form" to populate the drop downs.

We'll use an auto industry example with three conditional drop down fields for this example. But you can use it on any form you choose — contact form, order form, or others.

The order will go like this:

1. User selects the Year of their car
2. The user chooses their vehicle's make from Makes available in Year
3. Users choose their car's specific model based on the Year/Make they set

Step 1. Create the "Data Form"

To start, go to Formidable → Forms in your WordPress navigation menu to create a new form to act as your "data form." 

Again, your end-users will not directly interact with this form, but the "end user form" you create later will pull its data from this form's entries.

Then, simply drag and drop a text field for each drop down list you want to include in your end-user form. 

For our example, there would be three text fields:

1. Year
2. Make
3. Model

Remember, you can add custom fields to suit your needs (for example, a country dropdown for official forms).

Then, click Update to save your form.

Step 2. Import Data as Form Entries

Next, you'll need to fill your "data form" with the menu items you want to display in your cascading drop down menu. 

To do this, you'll add each piece of data as a form entry.

If you have a large data set, importing a CSV file and auto-populating the form while you create your dropdown menu in WordPress. For example, our automobile data set has over 7,000 rows - that's not something you want to do manually!

If you don't have a lot of data, you can manually add entries from the Entries tab of your data form.

To import a CSV to Formidable Forms, ensure that the headings in your CSV match the text fields in your "data form." 

In Excel, you can see how our example CSV has three columns, each of which matches the text fields that we created in the previous step:

Once you have your CSV file ready…

• Go to Formidable → Import/Export
• Use the Choose File button to select your CSV file
• Enter the CSV delimiter (this is almost always a comma)
• Select your "data form" from the Import Into Form drop down
• Click Upload file and import

On the next screen, make sure that the data from your CSV file is mapped correctly to the corresponding fields in your form so everything works when you create a new menu. 

Now, you have the data you need to populate your conditional drop down lists:

Next, it's time to create dependent drop down lists for your visitors to interact with.

Step 3. Create an "End User Form" and Add Lookup Fields

Next, you need to create a drop down list in a form. This will be the form that your human visitors see.

Once you have your new form, add a Lookup field and give it a name - e.g., "Select Year."

Then, find the Lookup Options settings in the Field Settings and…

• Select your data form using the Select Form drop down

Select the source field to pull data from using the Select Field drop down - e.g., "Year"

Make sure to save your changes.

Then, configure another Lookup field for the following data set. You'll only now use the Watch a Lookup Field button to make this lookup field dependent on the previous Lookup field. 

This allows you only to display options that match the last field and create that "cascading" effect:

Make sure to save your changes.

You'd add another Lookup field to add the final dropdown select (for our example). Only now, you'll use the Watch a Lookup Field option to make it dependent on the previous fields:

If you want to add more conditional drop downs to your form, you can repeat the same pattern as often as needed. Plus, you can choose Multiselect dropdowns to allow multi-select for users!

And that's it. You can view your form and manage it with the live preview, and you should see that nice cascading effect when you interact with your form:

Step 4: Add the drop down list WordPress form to your pages and posts

Last, we want your visitors to be able to see your form, right?

So, head to the post or page where you want to show the form and add a new WordPress block.

Next, search for the Formidable WordPress block, add it, then choose your form from the dropdown menu.

Last, update your post or page and your form will be live on your site!

Create Your First Conditional Drop Down List Today

Cascading drop down forms are a popular approach that makes an excellent option for forms involving price estimates, quotes, payments, locations, etc.

With the Formidable Forms WordPress plugin, you can create conditional drop down lists using as many conditions as needed without writing any custom queries or code. To set it up, you must create two forms and use lookup fields to dynamically populate them. You can even import a CSV file straight from Excel to populate your data form for large datasets.

To create dependent dropdown lists with Formidable Forms, you'll need the Formidable Forms Basic plan or above.

Get Formidable Forms Now!

If you're not already using Formidable Forms Pro, learn about all the helpful form builder features to understand why Formidable Forms is the best WordPress form plugin for conditional drop down lists and conditional logic, period!

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