Question about option selected="selected" and jquery option:selected.

[nelsonm]

hi all,

I know that the select tag's option selected="selected" just puts the option text in the select's display field on page load.

I also know that...

$('select').val()
$('select :selected').val()
$('select option:selected').val()

and

$('select :selected').text()
$('select option:selected').text()

are all functionally the same in that they all get the current option value and text respectively.

My question is...
Does the jquery selector ":selected" and "option:selected" component attempt to reference the select tag's selected option selected="selected" if any, or does it merely get the value or text of what's currently displayed in the select field and there is no relation between the tag's option="selected" and jquery "option:selected"?

[daveVk]

[w3schools.com...]

$('select :selected') returns the element(s) in question

$('select').val() works (in the case of a single selection) as the select element gets it value from the selected item.

[nelsonm]

Yes, When i tested my theory in jsfiddle, it appears that $(':select').val() does appear to always get the option where <option selected="selected">.

However, $('select').val() merely gets the currently displayed option regardless of whats been preselected via <option selected="selected">.

[jsfiddle.net ]

[nelsonm]

actually this one: [jsfiddle.net...]

[daveVk]

All forms should return the currently selected elements regardless of what was preselected via <option selected="selected">..

see demo here [api.jquery.com...]

$('select option:selected') is clearest syntax as it the option element that is selected.

Note that as in demo multiple elements can be returned.

If you need to know what was preselected use say <option selected="selected">

[nelsonm]

thanks for helping me clear that up.