jQuery - Reuse variable in a select

Question

Say I have:

HTML:

<select id="mySelect"><option value="0">option-1</option>...</select>

JS:

var select = $("#mySelect");

and I further down, I want to do:

var val = $("#mySelect option:selected").val();

I've tried this, but it seems to only return the text, not the value attribute:

$(select + "option:selected").val();
$(select + "option:selected").attr("value"); // also doesn't work

That doesn't really answer my question: How I can reuse the object to get the selected option value? — doremi
– doremi, Commented Jul 14, 2011 at 17:57

Narnian · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-14 17:58:15Z

4

Try the .find() method.

var opt = $("#mySelect");

var val = opt.find("option:selected").val();

(just couldn't use "select" since it's reserved in so many languages)

This may be a little more efficient since you're not doing a new find each time.

answered Jul 14, 2011 at 17:58

Narnian

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3 Comments

doremi Over a year ago

This works. How efficient is find? Is this the most optimized way?

aepheus Over a year ago

Find is the most efficient way to do this that I can think of.

Narnian Over a year ago

From what I've read, it's better to do a single find instead of doing a new find each time, since it has to go through the entire DOM. Going from an object you already have minimizes the search time.

ChristopheCVB · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-14 18:05:45Z

0

Try

$(select).find("option:selected").val();

answered Jul 14, 2011 at 18:05

ChristopheCVB

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Comments

Justin ᚅᚔᚈᚄᚒᚔ · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-14 18:47:04Z

0

Try this:

var strSelect = "#mySelect";
var val = $(strSelect + " option:selected").val();

edited Jul 14, 2011 at 18:47

answered Jul 14, 2011 at 17:58

Justin ᚅᚔᚈᚄᚒᚔ

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3 Comments

Justin ᚅᚔᚈᚄᚒᚔ Over a year ago

It's not just the missing space, the select var is just a string. Narnian has a better solution in use of the .find() method, useful if you need select to actually be a jQuery object (i.e. if you're already performing some operations on it).

doremi Over a year ago

Is this space really needed? If so, some of the examples in the jQuery doc are wrong: api.jquery.com/val

Justin ᚅᚔᚈᚄᚒᚔ Over a year ago

Sorry, not sure how the space got in the option:selected part. I was referring to the space before option.

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