2394
votes

How can I get the selected text (not the selected value) from a drop-down list in jQuery?

30
Just my two cents: An "ASP" drop-down is no special; it's just good old HTML. :-)ankush981
One can refer this article: javascriptstutorial.com/blog/…Dilip Kumar Yadav
for vanilla javascript way, see stackoverflow.com/a/5947/32453rogerdpack
Just $(this).prop('selected', true); replaced .att to .prop it worked for all browsersShahid Hussain Abbasi

30 Answers

3892
votes
$("#yourdropdownid option:selected").text();
274
votes

Try this:

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

For an ASP.NET dropdown you can use the following selector:

$("[id*='MyDropDownId'] :selected")
225
votes

The answers posted here, for example,

$('#yourdropdownid option:selected').text();

didn't work for me, but this did:

$('#yourdropdownid').find('option:selected').text();

It is possibly an older version of jQuery.

111
votes

If you already have the dropdownlist available in a variable, this is what works for me:

$("option:selected", myVar).text()

The other answers on this question helped me, but ultimately the jQuery forum thread $(this + "option:selected").attr("rel") option selected is not working in IE helped the most.

Update: fixed the above link

72
votes

This works for me

$("#dropdownid").change(function() {
    alert($(this).find("option:selected").text());
});

If the element created dynamically

$(document).on("change", "#dropdownid", function() {
    alert($(this).find("option:selected").text());
});
66
votes
$("option:selected", $("#TipoRecorde")).text()
55
votes

$("#DropDownID").val() will give the selected index value.

54
votes

This works for me:

$('#yourdropdownid').find('option:selected').text();

jQuery version: 1.9.1

43
votes

For the text of the selected item, use:

$('select[name="thegivenname"] option:selected').text();

For the value of the selected item, use:

$('select[name="thegivenname"] option:selected').val();
35
votes

Various ways

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

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

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

4. $("#myselect").find(":selected").text();
34
votes

Use this

const select = document.getElementById("yourSelectId");

const selectedIndex = select.selectedIndex;
const selectedValue = select.value;
const selectedText = select.options[selectedIndex].text;   

Then you get your selected value and text inside selectedValue and selectedText.

31
votes
$("#dropdownID").change(function(){
  alert($('option:selected', $(this)).text());
});
29
votes
var someName = "Test";

$("#<%= ddltest.ClientID %>").each(function () {
    $('option', this).each(function () {
        if ($(this).text().toLowerCase() == someName) {
            $(this).attr('selected', 'selected')
        };
    });
});

That will help you to get right direction. Above code is fully tested if you need further help let me know.

19
votes

For those who are using SharePoint lists and don't want to use the long generated id, this will work:

var e = $('select[title="IntenalFieldName"] option:selected').text();
17
votes
 $("#selectID option:selected").text();

Instead of #selectID you can use any jQuery selector, like .selectClass using class.

As mentioned in the documentation here.

The :selected selector works for <option> elements. It does not work for checkboxes or radio inputs; use :checked for them.

.text() As per the documentation here.

Get the combined text contents of each element in the set of matched elements, including their descendants.

So you can take text from any HTML element using the .text() method.

Refer the documentation for a deeper explanation.

15
votes
$("select[id=yourDropdownid] option:selected").text()

This works fine

13
votes

For getting selected value use

$('#dropDownId').val();

and for getting selected item text use this line:

$("#dropDownId option:selected").text();
12
votes
$('#id').find('option:selected').text();
11
votes

Select Text and selected value on dropdown/select change event in jQuery

$("#yourdropdownid").change(function() {
    console.log($("option:selected", this).text()); //text
    console.log($(this).val()); //value
})
11
votes

Try:

$var = jQuery("#dropdownid option:selected").val();
   alert ($var);

Or to get the text of the option, use text():

$var = jQuery("#dropdownid option:selected").text();
   alert ($var);

More Info:

10
votes
var e = document.getElementById("dropDownId");
var div = e.options[e.selectedIndex].text;
10
votes

Simply try the following code.

var text= $('#yourslectbox').find(":selected").text();

it returns the text of the selected option.

9
votes

Use:

('#yourdropdownid').find(':selected').text();
8
votes

the following worked for me:

$.trim($('#dropdownId option:selected').html())
7
votes

This work for me:

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

I'm using jQuery 1.10.2

7
votes

In sibling case

<a class="uibutton confirm addClient" href="javascript:void(0);">ADD Client</a>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter client name" style="margin: 5px;float: right" class="clientsearch large" />
<select class="mychzn-select clientList">
  <option value="">Select Client name....</option>
  <option value="1">abc</option>
</select>


 /*jQuery*/
 $(this).siblings('select').children(':selected').text()
7
votes

$(function () {
  alert('.val() = ' + $('#selectnumber').val() + '  AND  html() = ' + $('#selectnumber option:selected').html() + '  AND .text() = ' + $('#selectnumber option:selected').text());
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head runat="server">
    <title></title>

  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <div>
        <select id="selectnumber">
          <option value="1">one</option>
          <option value="2">two</option>
          <option value="3">three</option>
          <option value="4">four</option>
        </select>

      </div>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Click to see OutPut Screen

5
votes

This code worked for me.

$("#yourdropdownid").children("option").filter(":selected").text();
4
votes

If you want the result as a list, then use:

x=[];
$("#list_id").children(':selected').each(function(){x.push($(this).text());})
3
votes
$("#dropdown").find(":selected").text();


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

$("#dropdown option:selected").text();

$("#dropdown").children(":selected").text();