Get the value of a select menu

[evo81]

Hello,

Ive just started learning ajax and need some help writing my first little bit of script...

I want to get the value of a select menu

<select id="pages" onChange="updateTotal();">
<option value="3">3</option>
<option value="4">4</option>
<option value="5">5</option>
</select>

Can i just use

var pages = document.getElementById("pages").value

?

Any help much appreciated

[moltar]

var pagesObj = document.getElementById("pages"); 
alert(pagesObj.options[pagesObj.selectedIndex].value);

[Fotiman]

<select id="pages" onChange="updateTotal();">
<option value="3">3</option>
<option value="4">4</option>
<option value="5">5</option>
</select>

Here's a better way (note, replace ¦¦ with two pipe characters):

function updateTotal() 
{ 
 // Validate that the browser knows getElementById 
 if(!document.getElementById ) return; 
 // Get the "pages" select box 
 var pagesObj = document.getElementById("pages"); 
 // Validate that the object exists 
 if(!pagesObj ) return;  
 // Get the options array. This works for both 
 // single select and multi select boxes 
 if( typeof(pagesObj.options) == "undefined" ¦¦ pagesObj.options == null ) return; 
 var o = pagesObj.options; 
 // Get the selected options into an array 
 var s = new Array(); 
 for( var i = 0; i < o.length; i++ ) 
 { 
  if( o[i].selected ) 
  { 
   s[s.length] = o[i].value; 
  } 
 } 
 // s now contains an array of the selected values. 
 // If nothing was selected, the array length is 0 
 if( s.length == 0 ) 
 { 
  alert("You must select a value."); 
 } 
 else 
 { 
  for( var i = 0; i < s.length; i++ ) 
  { 
   // Do whatever you want with the values here 
   alert("You selected: " + s[i]; 
  } 
 } 
} 

[edited by: Fotiman at 2:31 pm (utc) on July 28, 2006]