What is the best method for adding options to a <select>
from a JavaScript object using jQuery?
I'm looking for something that I don't need a plugin to do, but I would also be interested in the plugins that are out there.
This is what I did:
selectValues = { "1": "test 1", "2": "test 2" };
for (key in selectValues) {
if (typeof (selectValues[key] == 'string') {
$('#mySelect').append('<option value="' + key + '">' + selectValues[key] + '</option>');
}
}
A clean/simple solution:
This is a cleaned up and simplified version of matdumsa's:
$.each(selectValues, function(key, value) {
$('#mySelect')
.append($('<option>', { value : key })
.text(value));
});
Changes from matdumsa's: (1) removed the close tag for the option inside append() and (2) moved the properties/attributes into an map as the second parameter of append().
var output = [];
$.each(selectValues, function(key, value)
{
output.push('<option value="'+ key +'">'+ value +'</option>');
});
$('#mySelect').html(output.join(''));
In this way you "touch the DOM" only one time.
I'm not sure if the latest line can be converted into $('#mySelect').html(output.join('')) because I don't know jQuery internals (maybe it does some parsing in the html() method)
</strike>
This is slightly faster and cleaner.
var selectValues = {
"1": "test 1",
"2": "test 2"
};
var $mySelect = $('#mySelect');
//
$.each(selectValues, function(key, value) {
var $option = $("<option/>", {
value: key,
text: value
});
$mySelect.append($option);
});
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<select id="mySelect"></select>
var list = $("#selectList");
$.each(items, function(index, item) {
list.append(new Option(item.text, item.value));
});
var list = document.getElementById("selectList");
for(var i in items) {
list.add(new Option(items[i].text, items[i].value));
}
If you don't have to support old IE versions, using the Option
constructor is clearly the way to go, a readable and efficient solution:
$(new Option('myText', 'val')).appendTo('#mySelect');
It's equivalent in functionality to, but cleaner than:
$("<option></option>").attr("value", "val").text("myText")).appendTo('#mySelect');
This looks nicer, provides readability, but is slower than other methods.
$.each(selectData, function(i, option)
{
$("<option/>").val(option.id).text(option.title).appendTo("#selectBox");
});
If you want speed, the fastest (tested!) way is this, using array, not string concatenation, and using only one append call.
auxArr = [];
$.each(selectData, function(i, option)
{
auxArr[i] = "<option value='" + option.id + "'>" + option.title + "</option>";
});
$('#selectBox').append(auxArr.join(''));
All of these answers seem unnecessarily complicated. All you need is:
var options = $('#mySelect').get(0).options;
$.each(selectValues, function(key, value) {
options[options.length] = new Option(value, key);
});
That is completely cross browser compatible.
var output = [];
var length = data.length;
for(var i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
output[i++] = '<option value="' + data[i].start + '">' + data[i].start + '</option>';
}
$('#choose_schedule').get(0).innerHTML = output.join('');
I've done a few tests and this, I believe, does the job the fastest. :P
Be forwarned... I am using jQuery Mobile 1.0b2 with PhoneGap 1.0.0 on an Android 2.2 (Cyanogen 7.0.1) phone (T-Mobile G2) and could not get the .append() method to work at all. I had to use .html() like follows:
var options;
$.each(data, function(index, object) {
options += '<option value="' + object.id + '">' + object.stop + '</option>';
});
$('#selectMenu').html(options);
There's an approach using the Microsoft Templating approach that's currently under proposal for inclusion into jQuery core. There's more power in using the templating so for the simplest scenario it may not be the best option. For more details see Scott Gu's post outlining the features.
First include the templating js file, available from github.
<script src="Scripts/jquery.tmpl.js" type="text/javascript" />
Next set-up a template
<script id="templateOptionItem" type="text/html">
<option value=\'{{= Value}}\'>{{= Text}}</option>
</script>
Then with your data call the .render() method
var someData = [
{ Text: "one", Value: "1" },
{ Text: "two", Value: "2" },
{ Text: "three", Value: "3"}];
$("#templateOptionItem").render(someData).appendTo("#mySelect");
I've blogged this approach in more detail.
I have made something like this, loading a dropdown item via Ajax. The response above is also acceptable, but it is always good to have as little DOM modification as as possible for better performance.
So rather than add each item inside a loop it is better to collect items within a loop and append it once it's completed.
$(data).each(function(){
... Collect items
})
Append it,
$('#select_id').append(items);
or even better
$('#select_id').html(items);
Rather than repeating the same code everywhere, I would suggest it is more desirable to write your own jQuery function like:
jQuery.fn.addOption = function (key, value) {
$(this).append($('<option>', { value: key }).text(value));
};
Then to add an option just do the following:
$('select').addOption('0', 'None');
A compromise of sorts between the top two answers, in a "one-liner":
$.fn.append.apply($('mySelect'),
$.map(selectValues, function(val, idx) {
return $("<option/>")
.val(val.key)
.text(val.value);
})
);
Builds up an array of Option elements using map and then appends them all to the Select at once by using apply
to send each Option as a separate argument on the append
function.
function populateDropdown(select, data) {
select.html('');
$.each(data, function(id, option) {
select.append($('<option></option>').val(option.value).html(option.name));
});
}
It works well with jQuery 1.4.1.
For complete article for using dynamic lists with ASP.NET MVC & jQuery visit: http://www.codecapers.com/post/Dynamic-Select-Lists-with-MVC-and-jQuery.aspx
$.each
is slower than a for
loop$("#mySelect").append();
So the best solution is the following
If JSON data resp
is
[
{"id":"0001", "name":"Mr. P"},
{"id":"0003", "name":"Mr. Q"},
{"id":"0054", "name":"Mr. R"},
{"id":"0061", "name":"Mr. S"}
]
use it as
var option = "";
for (i=0; i<resp.length; i++) {
option += "<option value='" + resp[i].id + "'>" + resp[i].name + "</option>";
}
$('#mySelect').html(option);
There's a sorting problem with this solution in Chrome (jQuery 1.7.1) (Chrome sorts object properties by name/number?) So to keep the order (yes, it's object abusing), I changed this:
optionValues0 = {"4321": "option 1", "1234": "option 2"};
to this
optionValues0 = {"1": {id: "4321", value: "option 1"}, "2": {id: "1234", value: "option 2"}};
and then the $.each will look like:
$.each(optionValues0, function(order, object) {
key = object.id;
value = object.value;
$('#mySelect').append($('<option>', { value : key }).text(value));
});
Although the previous answers are all valid answers - it might be advisable to append all these to a documentFragmnet first, then append that document fragment as an element after...
See John Resig's thoughts on the matter...
Something along the lines of:
var frag = document.createDocumentFragment();
for(item in data.Events)
{
var option = document.createElement("option");
option.setAttribute("value", data.Events[item].Key);
option.innerText = data.Events[item].Value;
frag.appendChild(option);
}
eventDrop.empty();
eventDrop.append(frag);