Is it possible to add placeholder in div tag

I would like to display some text to the user when my div element is empty.

I have tried adding a placeholder attribute to my div but the text is not being displayed.

<div placeholder="Enter the text"> </div>

How can I display a message when my div element is empty?

There are lot of options using javascript, but if you want to do it in css.Try this:

html:

<div contentEditable=true data-text="Enter text here"></div>

css:

[contentEditable=true]:empty:not(:focus):before{
    content:attr(data-text)
}

http://jsfiddle.net/d3975/1/"><b>Demo</b></a>

i have already answered to such a question here with this test : http://codepen.io/gcyrillus/pen/hzLIE

div:empty:before {
  content:attr(data-placeholder);
  color:gray
}

see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17753819/if-editable-div-have-no-text-than-set-placeholder/17754905#17754905

This can also be achieved without the use of the contentEditable attribute, using plain CSS.

Using the :empty pseudo-class along with the ::before pseudo-element you can add a placeholder to an empty element.

The following example provides a fallback placeholder for div elements that do not have a data-placeholder attribute defined.

Example:

div:empty::before {
  color: grey;
}
div[data-placeholder]:not([data-placeholder=""]):empty::before {
  content: attr(data-placeholder);
}
div:empty::before {
  content: 'fallback placeholder';
}

<div data-placeholder='data- placeholder'></div>
<br>
<div></div>

Assuming what you really want to do is to have the user input some text and show him some placeholder in the input field, this is what you can use:

<input type="text" value="Enter the text" onfocus="if(this.value=='Enter the text'){this.value='';}" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Enter the text';}" />

Of course you can wrap the input in a div.

<div><input [...] /></div>

You can see this in action here