Set default value for entity type in Symfony2

Question

I couldn't figure out how to make a default value for an entity type in symfony2. My code looked like this:

$rewardChoice = $this->createFormBuilder($reward)
    ->add('reward_name', 'entity', array(
        'class' => 'FuelFormBundle:Reward',
        'property' => 'reward_name',
        'data' => 2,
        'query_builder' => function(EntityRepository $er){
            return $er->createQueryBuilder('r')
                ->where('r.active = 1')
                ->groupBy('r.reward_id')
                ->orderBy('r.reward_name', 'DESC');

        },
    ))
    ->getForm();

However you need to hand in the object you are working with to make it work. My answer is below.

I found a lot of different answers on this but they all restructured the way the form was built. This was much easier.

Answer 1

So I found a lot of answers to make this work but all of them seemed to restructure the form to be built in another way however I found that setting the object in works best so I figured I would post my solution incase anyone ran into the issue again.

Here is my code in the controller.

// this is setting up a controller and really isn't important 
$dbController = $this->get('database_controller');

// this is getting the user id based on the hash passed by the url from the
// database controller
$user_id = $dbController->getUserIdByHash($hash);

// this is getting the Reward Entity.  A lot of times you will see it written as 
// $reward = new Reward however I am setting info into reward right away in this case
$reward = $dbController->getRewardByUserId($user_id);


$rewardChoice = $this->createFormBuilder($reward)
    ->add('reward_name', 'entity', array(
        'class' => 'FuelFormBundle:Reward',
        'property' => 'reward_name',

        // I pass $reward to data to set the default data.  Whatever you
        // assign to $reward will set the default value.  
        'data' => $reward,  
        'query_builder' => function(EntityRepository $er){
                return $er->createQueryBuilder('r')
                    ->where('r.active = 1')
                    ->groupBy('r.reward_id')
                    ->orderBy('r.reward_name', 'DESC');
        },
    ))
    ->getForm();

I hope this make things more clear. I saw a lot of the same question but none with this solution.

Answer 2

For symfony 4 we can use 'placeholder' => 'Choose an option',

->add('reward_name', EntityType::class, array(
                    'class' => Reward::class,
                    'choice_label' => 'name',
                    'placeholder' => 'Choose an option',
                ))

Answer 3

The best way to do this is to set reward name before creating the form. For example:

$reward->setRewardName('your_relationship_reference_here');

$rewardChoice = $this->createFormBuilder($reward)

Using the data field can cause problems.

Answer 4

Initialize value from the form's target object

$article=2/*Id of item that you wont to set as default*/    
$stock->setArtigo($this
                ->getDoctrine()
                ->getManager()
                ->getRepository('AppBundle:Artigo')
                ->find($article));

            $form = $this->createForm('AppBundle\Form\StockType', $stock);