Datepicker will help you with date selection. It can be used either inline with `NgbDatepicker` component or as a popup on any input element with `NgbInputDatepicker` directive. It also comes with the list of services to do date formatting, i18n and alternative calendars support.

We try to keep API of our components simple, but introduce extension points, so you could enrich and reuse them. Here is a short example of the vacation range picker that displays holidays with tooltips and disables weekends.

Datepicker can be used either inline or inside of the popup.

In the example above the template variable `#d` will point to the instance of the `NgbDatepicker` component in the first case. In the second it will point to the instance of the `NgbInputDatepicker` directive that handles the popup with inline datepicker component.

See the NgbDatepicker API and the NgbInputDatepicker API for details on available inputs, outputs and methods. You can customize the number of displayed months, the way navigation between months and years looks like, week numbers, etc.

Since v5.2.0 datepicker also has the State interface accessible via `datepicker.state` getter. It represents the readonly part of the publicly accessible state. ex. what is currently focused, what is the first and last visible dates, etc.

If you have a very specific use case for the datepicker popup, you could always create you own one and use the inline datepicker inside.

#### Handling the popup

It's up to you do decide when the datepicker popup should be opened and closed. The API contains `.open()`, `.close()` and `.toggle()` methods.

By default the popup element is attached after the input in the DOM. You have also the option of attaching it to the document body by setting the `[container]` input to `'body'`

The popup will be closed with `Escape` key and when a date is selected via keyboard or mouse. It can stay open after date selection if you set `[autoClose]` input to `false`

When using a button (or any other element) to open the popup, the styling and content of the button is left up to you. In the example above, the button is simply given the text "Toggle", but you could also use an icon, or even group the `input` and `button` with an input group.

You have several ways of knowing when user selects a date. The date is selected either by clicking on it, pressing `Space` or `Enter`, typing text in the input or programmatically.

Datepicker is integrated with Angular forms and works with both reactive and template-driven forms. So you could use `[(ngModel)]`, `[formControl]`, `formControlName`, etc. Using `ngModel` will allow you both to get and set selected value.

The model, however, is NOT a native javascript date, see the following Date Model section for more info.

Alternatively you could use the `(dateSelect)` output. The difference from `ngModel` is that outputs will continue emitting the same value, if user clicks on the same date. `NgModel` will do it only once.

Datepicker uses `NgbDateStruct` interface as a model and not the native `Date` object. It's a simple data structure with 3 fields, but note that months start with 1 (as in ISO 8601).

All datepicker APIs will consume `NgbDateStruct`, but will produce it's implementation class `NgbDate` when returning dates to you. It offers additional methods for easy date comparison, and using it together with `NgbCalendar` will cover most of the date-related calculations.

#### Adapters

You can also tell datepicker to use the native JavaScript date adapter (bundled with ng-bootstrap). For now the adapter works only for the form integration, so for instance `(ngModelChange)` will return a native date object. All other APIs continue to use `NgbDateStruct`.

You can also create your own adapters if necessary by extending and implementing the `NgbDateAdapter` methods, as in custom date adapter example.

#### Input date parsing and formatting

In the case of the `NgbInputDatepicker` you should be able to parse and format the text entered in the input. This is not as easy task as it seems, because you have to account for various formats and locales. For now internally there is a service that does default formatting using ISO 8601 format.

If the entered input value is invalid, the form model will contain the entered text.

You can also create your own parser or formatter if necessary by extending and implementing the `NgbDateParserFormatter` methods, as in custom date parser formatter example.

Date selection and navigation are two different things. You might have a date selected in January, but August currently displayed.

Datepicker fully supports keyboard navigation and screen readers. You can navigate between controls using `Tab` (focus will be trapped in the popup), move date focus with arrow keys, home, page up/down and use `Shift` modifier for faster navigation.

With the API you can tell datepicker to initially open a specific month via the `[startDate]` input or go to any month via the `.navigateTo()` method

You can limit the dates available for navigation and selection using `[minDate]` and `[maxDate]` inputs. If you don't specify any of them, you'll have infinite navigation and the year select box will display [-10, +10] years from currently visible month.

If you want to disable some dates for selection (ex. weekends), you have to provide the `[markDisabled]` function that will mark certain dates not selectable. It will be called for each newly visible day when you navigate between months.

You can completely replace how each date is rendered by providing a custom template and rendering anything you want inside. You'll get a date context available inside the template with info on whether current date is disabled, selected, focused, etc.

For more info on what is provided in the template context, see the DayTemplateContext API

Note that before v3.3.0 there is no `$implicit` template property and you have to specify `let-date="date"` in the template. See $implicit example in Angular documentation.

It is often useful to highlight a today's date in the calendar view or add a certain logic to it. Today's date is the date returned by the NgbCalendar's `getToday()` method.

We add a custom CSS class `.ngb-dp-today` on a cell that corresponds to the today's date. We do not add any rules to it at the moment, but you can add your own if necessary. You would see something like this in the resulting markup

You can also access this information from the DayTemplateContext API if you're using a custom day template. It contains a `today: boolean` flag since v4.1.0

You can replace the content of the datepicker. Combined with the NgbDatepickerMonthView you can customize the layout of months as in the custom month layout example.

You can insert anything you want in a datepicker footer by providing a template.

The datepicker model is a single date, however you still can implement range selection functionality. With `(select)` and `(dateSelect)` outputs you'll know which dates are being selected and with the `[dayTemplate]` input you can customize the way any particular date looks. If you want to use the `NgbDatepickerInput`, you can also tell the popup to stay open by tuning the `[autoClose]` input. Check the range selection example and the initial demo on this page for more details.

If you can't use the `NgbDatepickerInput` directive, you should create your own popup and use `NgbDatepicker` inside of it. In this case we'll handle everything related to date selection and navigation for you and you can create a completely customized popup with any data model you want.

Since the 2.0.0 release datepicker will use the application locale if it is present to get translations of weekdays and month names. The internal service that does translation is called `NgbDatepickerI18n` and you could provide your own implementation if necessary.

The next/previous button labels can be translated using the standard Angular i18n mechanism. For example, previous month label is extracted under the `ngb.datepicker.previous-month` name.

You can customize keyboard navigation as in the custom keyboard navigation example. The default keys are as follows:

`Space / Enter` | Selects currently focused date if it is not disabled
`Escape` | Closes the datepicker popup (unless `[autoClose]` is false)
`Arrow(Up|Down|Left|Right)` | Moves day focus inside the months view
`Shift + Arrow(Up|Down|Left|Right)` | Selects currently focused date (if it is not disabled)
`Home` | Moves focus to the the first day of currently opened first month
`End` | Moves focus to the the last day of currently opened last month
`Shift + Home` | Moves focus to the `minDate` (if set)
`Shift + End` | Moves focus to the `maxDate` (if set)
`PageDown` | Moves focus to the previous month
`PageUp` | Moves focus to the next month
`Shift + PageDown` | Moves focus to the previous year
`Shift + PageUp` | Moves focus to the next year