CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjquery
Ben Finkel
Ben Finkel

Reputation: 4803

Setting a SELECT element by text, not value

I'm sure this is relatively easy and straightforward, but I'm having no success figuring it out.

I am trying to set the selected option of a drop down list element using the following code:

        if ($(this).attr("tagName") == "SELECT") {

            oldValue = $(this).parent().parent().find('span.displayField').text();
            $(this).val(oldValue).attr("selected", "selected");
            return;
        }

But it is not changing the select element at all. The code is definitely running, and oldValue is being populated appropriately.

Can anyone see what I might be missing?

Thanks!

UPDATE:

For clarification, here is the HTML:

        <span class="displayField">Pending</span>
        <span class="editField">            
            <select data-val="true" data-val-number="The field ProgramStatusId must be a number." data-val-required="The ProgramStatusId field is required." id="ProgramListViewModels_0__ProgramStatusId" name="ProgramListViewModels[0].ProgramStatusId">
            <option value="1">Pending</option>
            <option value="2">Tabled</option>
            <option value="3">Approved</option>
            <option value="4">Declined</option>
            </select>  
        </span>

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1108

Answers (3)

gen_Eric
gen_Eric

Reputation: 227200

$(this).val(oldValue) will set the value of this to oldValue, and you just wanna find options with that texy. You want to use :contains() for this.

    if ($(this).is('select')) {
        oldValue = $(this).parent().parent().find('span.displayField').text();
        $('option:contains('+oldValue+')', this).attr("selected", "selected");
        return;
    }

Or if there are multiple options that contain the text, but are different, try this:

    if ($(this).is('select')) {
        oldValue = $(this).parent().parent().find('span.displayField').text();
        $('option', this).filter(function(){
          return this.text === oldValue;
        }).attr("selected", "selected");
        return;
    }

Upvotes: 2

Jim Mitchener
Jim Mitchener

Reputation: 9003

If I Understand your snippet correctly. I believe what you're trying to do is select the item with the same text() as $('span.displayField').

if ($(this).attr('tagName') == 'SELECT') {
    // unselect previously selected element first.
    var prev = $(this).find('option:selected').attr('selected', false);

    // select item with text from span.displayField
    var oldText = $(this).parent().parent().find('span.displayField').text();
    var oldOption = $(this).find('option[text="' + oldText + '"]');

    oldOption.attr('selected', true);
}

Upvotes: 1

zod
zod

Reputation: 12417

I dont understand what is that 

).parent().parent().

if you just want to set select box value selected try these

http://api.jquery.com/val/

$('select.foo option:selected').val();    // get the value from a dropdown select
$('select.foo').val();                    // get the value from a dropdown select

Upvotes: 0

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