Select

Chooses one or more values from a fixed, enumerable list, collapsed behind a trigger until opened.

What it is

A control that chooses from a fixed, enumerable set of options, collapsed behind a trigger until the reader opens it. The collapse is the point — it is the right choice once showing every option at once, as Radio does, would cost more space than it returns.

This page covers single-select and multi-select together, since choosing between them is one decision about the same field.

Live example

Exports

Vocabulary

Term	Also called	The system uses
Trigger	Closed state, control	Trigger
Option	Item, choice	Option
Option group	Section, category	Option group
Autocomplete	Searchable, typeahead, filterable	Autocomplete — a mode of Select, not a separate component. See warning below.

Autocomplete is a mode of this same component, not a separate “Combobox” — see Vocabulary and Open issues for the correction and its sign-off status.

Choose Select when

• The set of valid answers is fixed and enumerable, and long enough — roughly more than five — that showing every option at once would cost more space than it returns.
• The reader mainly needs to see the chosen value, not compare every option side by side.

Choose something else when

If you need to…	Use	Why
Offer fewer than roughly five mutually exclusive options	Radio	At that count, showing every option costs little and removes a click just to see them
Let the reader type to find a match among dozens or more options	Select with Autocomplete on	Confirmed as a mode of Select itself in the design library, not a separate component — see Vocabulary
Keep every choice visible even when several are selected	Checkbox group	Select’s trigger collapses the current selection; a checkbox list keeps every choice visible at once
Capture a single, immediately-applied binary setting	Switch	Two options is Select’s least useful case, and Switch is the lighter control for exactly two

Anatomy

#	Part	Required
1	Trigger — shows the current value or a placeholder	Yes
2	Field label	Yes — see TITAN-FLD-01
3	Option list	Yes, rendered on open
4	Option group header (the library’s “Category” type)	No
5	Option divider	No
6	Sub-option, nested one level under a parent option	No
7	Clear action	No

Options nest one level. The Figma library’s option-list component names two option kinds, Menu Item and Menu Sub-Item, each carrying the same state set (Default · Hover · Focused · Pressed · Disabled) and each combinable with a divider and a selected mark. This is a real structural axis this page did not previously account for — see TITAN-SELECT-08.

Variants, sizes, and states

Confirmed from the Figma library, not source. The trigger has Type (Default · Error) and State (Default · Focused · Filled · Disabled) axes, plus Autocomplete (false/true) — see Vocabulary. Filled here means “has a value,” distinct from the empty default — a state this page did not previously name.

Edge and failure states

Situation	What renders	Recovery
No options available	Undefined. See Gaps.	Should likely disable the trigger with a reachable explanation, matching TITAN-BTN-06’s reasoning
An option’s label is longer than the list is wide	Undefined whether it wraps or truncates	See Gaps
A very long option list	Undefined cutover to Autocomplete or virtualization	See TITAN-SELECT-01 and Gaps
Many options selected (multi-select)	Undefined trigger summary format — a count, chips, or a truncated list	See Gaps
Options loading asynchronously	Undefined. No affordance found, mirroring Input’s same gap.	See Gaps
Disabled	Renders at the disabled tokens shared with Input	Pair with a reachable explanation

Tokens

Composition

The closed trigger renders through the same field chrome as Input — border, focus ring, and control height are shared, not re-declared. Always paired with FieldLabel above it. The open option list’s items are named Menu Item / Menu Sub-Item in the design library — the same vocabulary Menu uses — suggesting shared overlay implementation. Unconfirmed against source; treat as likely, not settled.

For a complete field rather than the bare control, compose through FormInput with type="select" — see TITAN-SELECT-09.

Content

Rule	✅	❌
Options render in a stated, meaningful order — alphabetical, frequency, or a domain sequence	Country list sorted alphabetically	Options in whatever order the source data happened to list them
The trigger’s placeholder is an instruction, never a selectable option itself	”Choose a region"	"Choose a region” appearing as a real row in the option list
Group headers describe a category, not an instruction	Region · Product line	”Select one” as a group header

Accessibility

Key	Behavior
Enter / Space	Opens the list; on an option, selects it
↑ / ↓	Moves through options
Typing a character	Jumps to the next option starting with it
Esc	Closes the list without changing the selection

• The accessible name comes from FieldLabel, not from the currently-shown value.
• The trigger and list follow the standard listbox interaction pattern: the trigger reports its expanded state, and the currently highlighted option is announced as focus moves through the list without moving actual DOM focus off the trigger.

What this component does not handle: validating that a selection was made, or deciding whether the field is required — both belong to Form validation.

Constraints

ID	Constraint	Rationale
TITAN-SELECT-01	Select is for a fixed, enumerable set of options. Past a certain list length, turn on Autocomplete rather than reaching for a different component.	A collapsed list the reader can only scroll, not filter, becomes the slower control past a certain length — Autocomplete exists for exactly that case, as a mode of this component per the design library.
TITAN-SELECT-02	Options render in a stated, meaningful order — never left to incidental source order.	An unordered list forces the reader to scan every option to find the one they want, every time.
TITAN-SELECT-03	The trigger’s placeholder is an instruction to choose, and is never itself a selectable option.	An option whose text matches the placeholder is indistinguishable from “nothing selected yet.”
TITAN-SELECT-04	Option group headers are not selectable.	A header that responds to a click as if it were an option produces a selection with no corresponding visible option.
TITAN-SELECT-05	Multi-select’s trigger summarizes the current selection rather than growing unbounded with every chosen label.	An unbounded trigger competes with the layout around it for space in exactly the way Button avoids by holding its width.
TITAN-SELECT-06	A disabled Select is always accompanied by a reachable explanation of what would enable it.	Same reasoning as TITAN-BTN-06.
TITAN-SELECT-07	Choosing an option closes the trigger for single-select. For multi-select, the list stays open until the reader dismisses it.	Closing after every pick in multi-select would force reopening the list once per selection, which is the interaction cost Select exists to avoid.
TITAN-SELECT-08	A sub-option is nested exactly one level under a parent option, never deeper. Needs confirmation — evidenced by the library’s Menu Sub-Item type, but no third level was found to confirm the limit is one rather than simply “as deep as this file happened to model.”	An option list deeper than one level stops being scannable at a glance, which is most of Select’s value over a nested menu.
TITAN-SELECT-09	A complete field — label, helper text, and error state together — is composed via Form’s FormInput with type="select", never by hand-assembling a raw, unwrapped Select or a TextField select.	Source publishes DoNotUse_RawSelect as a named anti-pattern story, stating directly that a raw, unwrapped Select “drops keyboard search, group/header support, and consistent styling.”

Known issues

Select: open issues

Divergences, open decisions, and undocumented gaps for Select.

Why it works this way

The collapse is the trade the fork with Radio is drawn around. Below roughly five options, showing all of them costs little and saves the reader a click; above that, the space a visible list would take outweighs the convenience, which is why Choose something else when draws the line there rather than at some other count.

Option order matters more here than in a visible list, because a reader scanning a Radio group can notice a strange ordering before interacting with it. A Select’s options are hidden until opened, so a confusing order is discovered mid-interaction — a worse moment to lose the reader’s confidence in the control.

A summarized multi-select trigger exists for the same reason Button holds its width while loading: a control that grows every time the reader acts on it moves whatever sits next to it, at the exact moment the reader is mid-task.

Status

Related

• FieldLabel — every Select composes with one
• Input — shares the closed trigger’s field chrome
• Checkbox — the always-visible alternative for multi-select
• Form validation — decides whether a selection is required