jQuery: Selecting an item in a drop down list using the text value

Question

Using jQuery, what is the easiest way to select an item in a drop down list using the text value.

For example, I have drop down list that has a list of states. And I have the text value of “PA”. I want to make “PA” be the selected value. What is the best way to do this using jQuery. I have been doing Google searches for hours and I cannot find an example to this question.

Note each item in the drop down list has a numeric key. And I know that $(#ddlStates).val(key) will select the value I want. However, I do not have the key only the test (“PA”)

Thanks for your help.

Nick Craver · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-08 16:26:30Z

6

To be 100% sure on the match you can do this:

$("#ddlStates option").filter(function() {
  return $(this).text() == "PA";
}).attr('selected', true);

What will probably work for your scenario is the :has() selector, less safe in others is just:

$("#ddlStates option:contains('PA')").attr('selected', true);

You can test it out here, you wouldn't want to use this in other cases because it would match a substring, but since you have states, presumably all 2 letters it will work here. For other cases you can use the first method.

answered Aug 8, 2010 at 16:26

Nick Craver

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:06:24Z

0

$("#myselect :selected").text();

see this post Get selected text from a drop-down list (select box) using jQuery

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:06

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 20, 2012 at 19:01

BraveNewMath

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