The SharePoint native Dropdown column does not contain a "Please select" or empty value if it is set as "Required"

The SharePoint native Dropdown column does not contain a "Please select" or empty value if it is set as "Required". To add that value and force the user to select, we need to put some javascript in an Content Editor Web Part on the page. Here is the javascript code. Please do not forget to write the fieldTitle in function MyCustomExecuteFunction.


<script type="text/javascript">
function GetDropdownByTitle(title) {
    var dropdowns = document.getElementsByTagName('select');
    for (var i = 0; i < dropdowns.length; i++) {
        if (dropdowns[i].title === title) {
            return dropdowns[i];
        }
    }
    return null;
}

function GetOKButtons() {
    var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
    var len = inputs.length;
    var okButtons = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        if (inputs[i].type && inputs[i].type.toLowerCase() === 'button' && 
             inputs[i].id && inputs[i].id.indexOf('diidIOSaveItem') >= 0) {
             okButtons.push(inputs[i]);
        }
    }
    return okButtons;
}

function AddValueToDropdown(oDropdown, text, value, optionnumber){
    var options = oDropdown.options;
    var option = document.createElement('OPTION');
    option.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text));
    option.setAttribute('value',value);
    if (typeof(optionnumber) == 'number' && options[optionnumber]) {
        oDropdown.insertBefore(option,options[optionnumber]);
    }
    else {
        oDropdown.appendChild(option);
    }
    oDropdown.options.selectedIndex = 0;
}

function WrapClickEvent(element, newFunction) {
    var clickFunc = element.onclick;
    element.onclick = function(event){
        if (newFunction()) {
            clickFunc();
        }
    };
}

function MyCustomExecuteFunction() {
    // find the dropdown
    var fieldTitle = 'Large Lookup Field';
    var dropdown = GetDropdownByTitle(fieldTitle);
    if (null === dropdown) {
        alert('Unable to get dropdown');
        return;
    }

    AddValueToDropdown(dropdown, '', '', 0);

    // add a custom validate function to the page
    var funcValidate = function() {
        if (0 === dropdown.selectedIndex) {
            alert("Please choose a value for " + fieldTitle + ".");
            // require a selection other than the first item (our blank value)
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    };

    var okButtons = GetOKButtons();
    for (var b = 0; b < okButtons.length; b++) {
        WrapClickEvent(okButtons[b], funcValidate);
    }
}

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("MyCustomExecuteFunction");

</script>