Check if option is selected with jQuery, if not select a default

Question

Using jQuery, how do you check if there is an option selected in a select menu, and if not, assign one of the options as selected.

(The select is generated with a maze of PHP functions in an app I just inherited, so this is a quick fix while I get my head around those :)

http://api.jquery.com/selected-selector/ – Paulo Henrique Dec 28 '11 at 18:35 — Paulo Henrique, Dec 28 '11 at 18:35

score 274 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 07 '14 at 11:40

274

While I'm not sure about exactly what you want to accomplish, this bit of code worked for me.

<select id="mySelect" multiple="multiple">
  <option value="1">First</option>
  <option value="2">Second</option>
  <option value="3">Third</option>
  <option value="4">Fourth</option>
</select>

<script type="text/javascript"> 
$(document).ready(function() {
  if (!$("#mySelect option:selected").length) {
    $("#mySelect option[value='3']").attr('selected', 'selected');
  }
});
</script>

edited Aug 07 '14 at 11:40

Rishi Kulshreshtha

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answered Sep 29 '08 at 17:42

Joe Lencioni

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The selection would be easier to read like this: `$("#mySelect").val(3);` – Jørn Schou-Rode Dec 09 '09 at 12:07
6

This got me on the right track, but I needed to do this: `$("#mySelect option")[2]['selected'] = true;` Figured that out after investigating the object structures in Firebug. – semperos Aug 12 '10 at 21:08
28

As of jQuery 1.6 you can set the property directly. `$("#mySelect").prop("selectedIndex", 2)` – gradbot May 16 '11 at 01:31
1

The .val(x) version does not work in Internet Explorer 8, so @gradbot has it right, as this works in all Browsers. – Sorcy Jul 18 '12 at 11:15

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '08 at 16:57

30

No need to use jQuery for this:

var foo = document.getElementById('yourSelect');
if (foo)
{
   if (foo.selectedIndex != null)
   {
       foo.selectedIndex = 0;
   } 
}

answered Sep 29 '08 at 16:57

FlySwat

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59

The OP stated, "Using jQuery ..." so it seems superfluous to ignore that, no? – BryanH Jul 04 '09 at 06:07
13

Personally, if I ask a specific question, I would like to get the answer for the question instead of a different way. – vitto Jun 22 '11 at 00:02
18

Sometimes the answer you seek is not the one you expect. – MrBoJangles Jul 22 '11 at 16:04
5

Regardless, he asked for jQuery, and the jQuery answer is quite a bit easier to understand, especially if one does not understand base JavaScript. – shmeeps Jul 22 '11 at 16:29
6

Excellent way to do it, sometimes base javascript can be quite handy! – Hallaghan Aug 31 '11 at 11:37

Gavin · Answer 3 · 2013-09-13T21:00:42.587

This question is old and has a lot of views, so I'll just throw some stuff out there that will help some people I'm sure.

To check if a select element has any selected items:

if ($('#mySelect option:selected').length > 0) { alert('has a selected item'); }

or to check if a select has nothing selected:

if ($('#mySelect option:selected').length == 0) { alert('nothing selected'); }

or if you're in a loop of some sort and want to check if the current element is selected:

$('#mySelect option').each(function() {
    if ($(this).is(':selected')) { .. }
});

to check if an element is not selected while in a loop:

$('#mySelect option').each(function() {
    if ($(this).not(':selected')) { .. }
});

These are some of the ways to do this. jQuery has many different ways of accomplishing the same thing, so you usually just choose which one appears to be the most efficient.

"not" has not worked for me $('#mySelect option').each(function() { if ($(this).not(':selected')) { .. } }); So used a negation on is like if (!$(this).is(':selected')) { .. } Browser: Chrome; Jquery version: 3.1.1 — Anil kumar, Nov 10 '17 at 10:10

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

lencioni's answer is what I'd recommend. You can change the selector for the option ('#mySelect option:last') to select the option with a specific value using "#mySelect option[value='yourDefaultValue']". More on selectors.

If you're working extensively with select lists on the client check out this plugin: http://www.texotela.co.uk/code/jquery/select/. Take a look the source if you want to see some more examples of working with select lists.

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 30 '09 at 12:25

Here is my function changing the selected option. It works for jQuery 1.3.2

function selectOption(select_id, option_val) {
    $('#'+select_id+' option:selected').removeAttr('selected');
    $('#'+select_id+' option[value='+option_val+']').attr('selected','selected');   
}

score 7 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 16 '10 at 12:06

7

<script type="text/javascript"> 
$(document).ready(function() {
  if (!$("#mySelect option:selected").length)
   $("#mySelect").val( 3 );

});
</script>

edited Nov 16 '10 at 12:06

Rup

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answered Dec 09 '09 at 11:59

Ram Prasad

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score 3 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '11 at 14:05

3

I already came across the texotela plugin mentioned, which let me solve it like this:

$(document).ready(function(){
    if ( $("#context").selectedValues() == false) {
    $("#context").selectOptions("71");
    }
});

edited May 23 '11 at 14:05

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 29 '08 at 18:06

meleyal

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score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Aug 06 '10 at 17:08

3

Easy! The default should be the first option. Done! That would lead you to unobtrusive JavaScript, because JavaScript isn't needed :)

Unobtrusive JavaScript

edited Aug 06 '10 at 17:08

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 04 '09 at 16:27

Martin Labuschin

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 29 '08 at 16:51

2

Look at the selectedIndex of the select element. BTW, that's a plain ol' DOM thing, not JQuery-specific.

answered Sep 29 '08 at 16:51

Hank Gay

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score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Jan 27 '11 at 17:50

2

This was a quick script I found that worked... .Result is assigned to a label.

$(".Result").html($("option:selected").text());

edited Jan 27 '11 at 17:50

iwasrobbed

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answered Oct 30 '09 at 21:38

Joel

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1

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 21 '13 at 10:04

1

if (!$("#select").find("option:selected").length){
  //
}

edited Aug 21 '13 at 10:04

Sliq

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answered Aug 21 '13 at 09:48

Avinash Saini

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 04 '09 at 16:03

1

You guys are doing way too much for selecting. Just select by value:

$("#mySelect").val( 3 );

answered Dec 04 '09 at 16:03

giagejoe

39
1

2

This is selecting option 3 regardless if another option is already selected. – Jordan Ryan Moore Dec 04 '09 at 16:06

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 16:20

I found a good way to check, if option is selected and select a default when it isn't.

    if(!$('#some_select option[selected="selected"]').val()) {
        //here code if it HAS NOT selected value
        //for exaple adding the first value as "placeholder"
        $('#some_select option:first-child').before('<option disabled selected>Wybierz:</option>');
    }

If #some_select has't default selected option then .val() is undefined

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 14 '14 at 19:25

Change event on the select box to fire and once it does then just pull the id attribute of the selected option :-

$("#type").change(function(){
  var id = $(this).find("option:selected").attr("id");

  switch (id){
    case "trade_buy_max":
      // do something here
      break;
  }
});

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 22 '14 at 19:59

I was just looking for something similar and found this:

$('.mySelect:not(:has(option[selected])) option[value="2"]').attr('selected', true);

This finds all select menus in the class that don't already have an option selected, and selects the default option ("2" in this case).

I tried using :selected instead of [selected], but that didn't work because something is always selected, even if nothing has the attribute

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 17 '16 at 09:19

If you need to explicitly check each option to see if any have the "selected" attribute you can do this. Otherwise using option:selected you'll get the value for the first default option.

var viewport_selected = false;      
$('#viewport option').each(function() {
    if ($(this).attr("selected") == "selected") {
        viewport_selected = true;
    }
});

score 0 · Answer 17 · edited Jan 27 '11 at 17:50

0

$("option[value*='2']").attr('selected', 'selected');
// 2 for example, add * for every option

edited Jan 27 '11 at 17:50

iwasrobbed

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answered Aug 15 '10 at 12:18

user420944

11

score 0 · Answer 18 · edited Dec 16 '12 at 09:22

0

$("#select_box_id").children()[1].selected

This is another way of checking an option is selected or not in jquery. This will return Boolean (True or False).

[1] is index of select box option

edited Dec 16 '12 at 09:22

Andriy M

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answered Apr 02 '12 at 07:32

Taimoor Changaiz

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Check if option is selected with jQuery, if not select a default

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