Trying to get the text value of a selected option from a select

[chanshaw]

Hi I'm trying to get the text from the selected <option> of a <select>

function loadSelectQuestion()
{
	var dropdownIndex = document.getElementById('selectCategory').value;
	document.getElementById('selectQuestion').innerHTML = dropdownIndex;
}

I can get the value of the select but if I try doing .text instead of .value i get an undefined responce.

[Dormilich]

I can get the value of the select but if I try doing .text instead of .value i get an undefined responce.

because there is no such property in the HTML element (resp. in its JavaScript representation)

[chanshaw]

I'm sorry, I don't understand. So I can't get the text value of the selected option with javascript?

[Dormilich]

you can get the text value, but you have to do it properly.

assuming you already have the option element, there are several ways

// the option element is referenced through "opt"

// for browsers which support textContent
text = opt.textContent;

// DOM level 1 (works everywhere, but not very elegant)
// if there is only text inside the option element 
text = opt.firstChild.nodeValue;

[acoder]

The .text is a property of the <option> element/object, not the <select> element, so get the selected option to get the text:

sel.options[sel.selectedIndex].text

where 'sel' is a reference to the select object.

[chanshaw]

perfect thank you much

var theCategory = selectCategory.options[selectCategory.selectedIndex].text

[acoder]

No problemo .