jQuery - setting the selected value of a select control via its text description

I have a select control, and in a javascript variable I have a text string.

Using jQuery I want to set the selected element of the select control to be the item with the text description I have (as opposed to the value, which I don't have).

I know setting it by value is pretty trivial. e.g.

$('#my-select').val(myVal);

But I'm a bit stumped on doing it via the text description. I guess there must be a way of getting the value out from the text description, but my brain is too Friday afternoon-ed to be able to work it out.

Answers:

I haven't tested this, but this might work for you.

$('select#my-select option')
   .each(function() { this.selected = (this.text == myVal); });

Answers:

Get the children of the select box; loop through them; when you have found the one you want, set it as the selected option; return false to stop looping.

Answers:

Select by description for jQuery v1.6+

var text1 = 'Two';
$('select option').filter(function() {
  //may want to use $.trim in here
  return $(this).text() == text1;
}).prop('selected', true);

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js'></script>

<select>
  <option value='0'>One</option>
  <option value='1'>Two</option>
</select>

jQuery versions below 1.6 and greater than or equal to 1.4

var text1 = 'Two';
$('select option').filter(function() {
  //may want to use $.trim in here
  return $(this).text() == text1;
}).attr('selected', true);

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.0/jquery.min.js'></script>

<select>
  <option value='0'>One</option>
  <option value='1'>Two</option>
</select>

Note that while this approach will work in versions that are above 1.6 but less than 1.9, it has been deprecated since 1.6. It will not work in jQuery 1.9+.

---

Previous versions

val() should handle both cases.

$('select').val('1'); // selects 'Two'
$('select').val('Two'); // also selects 'Two'

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.3/jquery.min.js'></script>

<select>
  <option value='0'>One</option>
  <option value='1'>Two</option>
</select>

Answers:

$('#myselect option:contains('YourTextHere')').val();

will return the value of the first option containing your text description. Tested this and works.

Answers:

Try this...to select the option with text myText

$('#my-Select option[text=' + myText +']').prop('selected', true);

Answers:

take a look at the jquery selectedbox plugin

selectOptions(value[, clear]): 

Select options by value, using a string as the parameter $('#myselect2').selectOptions('Value 1');, or a regular expression $('#myselect2').selectOptions(/^val/i);.

You can also clear already selected options: $('#myselect2').selectOptions('Value 2', true);

Answers:

 $('#Test').find('option:contains('two')').each(function(){
     if( $(this).text() == 'two' ) {
        $(this).attr('selected','selected');
     }
 });

The if statement does a exact match with 'two' and 'two three' will not be matched

Answers:

I had a problem with the examples above, and the problem was caused by the fact that my select box values are prefilled with fixed length strings of 6 characters, but the parameter being passed in wasn't fixed length.

I have an rpad function which will right pad a string, to the length specified, and with the specified character. So, after padding the parameter it works.

$('#wsWorkCenter').val(rpad(wsWorkCenter, 6, ' '));


function rpad(pStr, pLen, pPadStr) {
if (pPadStr == '') {pPadStr == ' '};
while (pStr.length < pLen)
    pStr = pStr + pPadStr;
return pStr; 
} 

Answers:

Easiest way with 1.7+ is:

$('#myDropDown option:text=' + myText +'').attr('selected', 'selected'); 

1.9+

$('#myDropDown option:text=' + myText +'').prop('selected', 'selected'); 

Tested and works.

Answers:

To avoid all jQuery version complications, I honestly recommend using one of these really simple javascript functions...

function setSelectByValue(eID,val)
{ //Loop through sequentially//
  var ele=document.getElementById(eID);
  for(var ii=0; ii<ele.length; ii++)
    if(ele.options[ii].value==val) { //Found!
      ele.options[ii].selected=true;
      return true;
    }
  return false;
}

function setSelectByText(eID,text)
{ //Loop through sequentially//
  var ele=document.getElementById(eID);
  for(var ii=0; ii<ele.length; ii++)
    if(ele.options[ii].text==text) { //Found!
      ele.options[ii].selected=true;
      return true;
    }
  return false;
}

Answers:

Just on a side note. My selected value was not being set. And i had search all over the net. Actually i had to select a value after a call back from a web service, because i was getting data from it.

$('#SelectMonth option[value=' + DataFromWebService + ']').attr('selected', 'selected'); 
$('#SelectMonth').selectmenu('refresh', true);

So the refresh of the selector was was the only thing that i was missing.

Answers:

I found that by using attr you would end up with multiple options selected when you didn't want to - solution is to use prop:

$('#myDropDown option:text=' + myText +'').prop('selected', 'selected');

Answers:

I know this is an old post, but I couldn't get it to select by text using jQuery 1.10.3 and the solutions above. I ended up using the following code (variation of spoulson's solution):

      var textToSelect = 'Hello World';

      $('#myDropDown option').each(function (a, b) {
            if ($(this).html() == textToSelect ) $(this).attr('selected', 'selected');
        });

Hope it helps someone.

Answers:

This line worked:

$('#myDropDown option:contains(myText)').attr('selected', true);

Answers:

 $('#theYear').on('change', function () {
 FY = $(this).find('option:selected').text();
 $('#theFolders').each(function () {
     $('option:not(:contains(' + FY + '))', this).hide();
 });
 $('#theFolders').val(0);
});

$('#theYear').on('mousedown', function () {
 $('#theFolders option').show().find('option:contains('Select')', this).attr('selected', 'selected');
});

Answers:

Heres an easy option. Just set your list option then set its text as selected value:

$('#ddlScheduleFrequency option').selected(text('Select One...'));

Answers:

This accepted answer does not seem correct, while .val('newValue') is correct for the function, trying to retrieve a select by its name does not work for me, I had to use the id and classname to get my element

Answers:

I do it on this way (jQuery 1.9.1)

$('#my-select').val('Dutch').change();

Note: don't forget the change(), I had to search to long because of that :)

Answers:

Here is very simple way. plz use it

$('#free').val('y').change();

Answers:

Very fiddly and nothing else seemed to work

$('select[name$="dropdown"]').children().text("Mr").prop("selected", true);

worked for me.

Answers: