Add Twitter Bootstrap icon to Input box

Question

How can we add a Twitter Bootstrap icon icon-search to the right of a text input element?

The following attempt placed all the icons inside the input el

Answer 1

Bootstrap 4.x with 3 different way.

1. Icon with default bootstrap Style

   <div class="input-group">
         <input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
         <div class="input-group-append">
           <span class="input-group-text"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
         </div>
       </div>
   

2. Icon Inside Input with default bootstrap class

   <div class="input-group">
         <input type="text" class="form-control border-right-0" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
         <div class="input-group-append">
           <span class="input-group-text bg-transparent"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
         </div>
   
   </div>
   

3. Icon Inside Input with small custom css

   <div class="input-group">
         <input type="text" class="form-control rounded-right" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
           <span class="icon-inside"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
       </div> 
   

   Custom Css

   .icon-inside {
         position: absolute;
         right: 10px;
         top: calc(50% - 12px);
         pointer-events: none;
         font-size: 16px;
         font-size: 1.125rem;
         color: #c4c3c3;
         z-index:3;
       }
   

.icon-inside {
      position: absolute;
      right: 10px;
      top: calc(50% - 12px);
      pointer-events: none;
      font-size: 16px;
      font-size: 1.125rem;
      color: #c4c3c3;
      z-index:3;
    }

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/css/bootstrap.min.css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://use.fontawesome.com/releases/v5.2.0/css/all.css" integrity="sha384-hWVjflwFxL6sNzntih27bfxkr27PmbbK/iSvJ+a4+0owXq79v+lsFkW54bOGbiDQ" crossorigin="anonymous">

    <div class="container">
    <h5 class="mt-3">Icon <small>with default bootstrap Style</small><h5>
    <div class="input-group">
      <input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
      <div class="input-group-append">
        <span class="input-group-text"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
      </div>
    </div>

    <h5 class="mt-3">Icon Inside Input <small>with default bootstrap class</small><h5>
    <div class="input-group">
      <input type="text" class="form-control border-right-0" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
      <div class="input-group-append">
        <span class="input-group-text bg-transparent"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
      </div>
    </div>

    <h5 class="mt-3">Icon Inside Input<small> with small custom css</small><h5>
    <div class="input-group">
      <input type="text" class="form-control rounded-right" placeholder="From" aria-label="from" aria-describedby="from">
        <span class="icon-inside"><i class="fas fa-map-marker-alt"></i></span>
    </div>

    </div>

Answer 2

For bootstrap 4

        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-9gVQ4dYFwwWSjIDZnLEWnxCjeSWFphJiwGPXr1jddIhOegiu1FwO5qRGvFXOdJZ4" crossorigin="anonymous">

            <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-q8i/X+965DzO0rT7abK41JStQIAqVgRVzpbzo5smXKp4YfRvH+8abtTE1Pi6jizo" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
            <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.0/umd/popper.min.js" integrity="sha384-cs/chFZiN24E4KMATLdqdvsezGxaGsi4hLGOzlXwp5UZB1LY//20VyM2taTB4QvJ" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
            <script src="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.0/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-uefMccjFJAIv6A+rW+L4AHf99KvxDjWSu1z9VI8SKNVmz4sk7buKt/6v9KI65qnm" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
        <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <form class="form-inline my-2 my-lg-0">
                        <div class="input-group">
                            <input class="form-control" type="search" placeholder="Search">
                            <div class="input-group-append">
                                <div class="input-group-text"><i class="fa fa-search"></i></div>
                            </div>
                        </div>
                    </form>

Demo

Answer 3

Since the glyphicons image is a sprite, you really can't do that: fundamentally what you want is to limit the size of the background, but there's no way to specify how big the background is. Either you cut out the icon you want, size it down and use it, or use something like the input field prepend/append option (http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/base-css.html#forms and then search for prepended inputs).

Answer 4

Bootstrap 4.x

With Bootstrap 4 (and Font Awesome), we still can use the input-group wrapper around our form-control element, and now we can use an input-group-append (or input-group-prepend) wrapper with an input-group-text to get the job done:

<div class="input-group mb-3">
  <input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search" aria-describedby="my-search">
  <div class="input-group-append">
    <span class="input-group-text" id="my-search"><i class="fas fa-filter"></i></span>
  </div>
</div>

It will look something like this (thanks to KyleMit for the screenshot):

Learn more by visiting the Input group documentation.

Answer 5

Updated Bootstrap 3.x

You can use the .input-group class like this:

<div class="input-group">
    <input type="text" class="form-control"/>
    <span class="input-group-addon">
        <i class="fa fa-search"></i>
    </span>
</div>

Working Demo in jsFiddle for 3.x

---

Bootstrap 2.x

You can use the .input-append class like this:

<div class="input-append">
    <input class="span2" type="text">
    <button type="submit" class="btn">
        <i class="icon-search"></i>
    </button>
</div>

Working Demo in jsFiddle for 2.x

---

Both will look like this:

If you'd like the icon inside the input box, like this:

Then see my answer to Add a Bootstrap Glyphicon to Input Box