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You are here: Reference > JavaScript > client-side > HTML DOM > objects > nodes and tags > option

option object | Option object

Browser support:
Option
option
Specifies an item in a selection list.
The option element is used to add items to a select element. If the select element that contains the option tag is placed within a submittable form, and the form is submitted, the contents of the value property of the selected option(s) will be sent to the server. If the value property is not specified, the text content of the option tag will be sent.
You can set the initial selected state with the SELECTED attribute.
For further details, see the page for the select tag.
Do not use the onclick event on an option to detect when the option has been selected. If you need to detect when an option has been selected or when the selection has changed in a select element, use the onchange event on the select element.
Note that the support of several events (such as onclick, onmousedown, onmousemove, etc.) depends on the appearance of the select element. They are supported on list boxes (except in Internet Explorer), but only Firefox supports all of them on drop-down lists.

Syntax:

Methods that return the object:
•document.createElement ("option")
•new Option (text, value)
•options.item (nameOrIndex [, subIndex])
•select.item (index [, subIndex])
•options.namedItem (name)
•select.namedItem (name)
The base interface, through which you can add new functionalities to the option object, is the HTMLOptionElement interface.
If you want to see the HTML objects by categories, please visit this page.
HTML page for this element: option

Possible members:

 Properties
Methods
Events
Style properties
accessKey
Sets or retrieves an access key to an element.
all
Represents a collection of all elements contained by an element or the entire document.
attributes
Represents a collection of attribute nodes that belong to an element.
baseURI
10
 Returns the base URL for the object.
behaviorUrns
Represents a collection of the Uniform Resource Names for all behaviors attached to an element.
canHaveChildren
Retrieves a Boolean value that indicates whether the element can contain child elements.
canHaveHTML
Retrieves a Boolean value that indicates whether the element can contain HTML formatted text.
childElementCount
93.5
 Returns the number of element nodes that are direct descendants of the current element.
childNodes
Represents a collection of all nodes that are direct descendants of an element.
children
3.5
 Represents a collection of all element nodes that are direct descendants of an element.
className
Sets or retrieves the style class or classes that belong to the element.
clientHeight
Returns the height of the visible area for an object, in pixels. The value contains the height with the padding, but it does not include the scrollBar, border, and the margin.
clientLeft
Returns the width of the left border in pixels.
clientTop
Returns the height of the top border in pixels.
clientWidth
Returns the width of the visible area for an object, in pixels. The value contains the width with the padding, but does not include the scrollBar, border, and the margin.
contentEditable
3
 Sets or retrieves whether the contents of the object are editable.
currentStyle
Represents the computed style settings for an element.
defaultSelected
Specifies or returns the initial state of an option element. The initial state can be set with the SELECTED attribute in HTML.
dir
Sets or retrieves the text direction as related to the lang property.
disabled
8
 Sets or retrieves the state of an object for user interaction.
firstChild
Returns a reference to the first child of the current element.
firstElementChild
93.5
 Returns a reference to the first child element of the current element.
form
Returns a reference to the form element in which the object is placed.
forms
Represents a collection of all form elements in the current document.
id
Sets or retrieves a unique identifier for the object.
index
Specifies or returns an integer that indicates the position of an option element within a selection list.
innerHTML
Sets or retrieves the inner HTML content (the source code between the opening and closing tags) of an element.
innerText
Sets or returns the text content of an element including the text content of its descendants.
isContentEditable
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the contents of the object are editable by the user.
isDisabled
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the object is disabled.
isMultiLine
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the contents of an element can be multiline or not.
isTextEdit
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the createTextRange method can be used for the element.
label
Sets or retrieves a short label for an option element.
lang
Specifies or returns the language of the element.
language
Sets or retrieves the scripting language for the current element. Use it only for the script element.
lastChild
Returns a reference to the last child of the current element.
lastElementChild
93.5
 Returns a reference to the last child element of the current element.
localName
9
 Returns the local part of the qualified name of the current node.
name
Sets or retrieves the name of an element.
namespaceURI
93.6
 Sets or returns the namespace URI of the current node.
nextElementSibling
93.5
 Returns a reference to the next child element of the current element's parent.
nextSibling
Returns a reference to the next child of the current element's parent.
nodeName
Returns the name of the current node.
nodeType
Returns an integer that indicates the type of the node.
nodeValue
Sets or returns the value of the current node.
offsetHeight
Returns the height of the visible area for an object, in pixels. The value contains the height with the padding, scrollBar, and the border, but does not include the margin.
offsetLeft
Returns the left position of an object relative to the left side of its offsetParent element, in pixels.
offsetParent
Returns a reference to the closest ancestor element in the DOM hierarchy from which the position of the current element is calculated.
offsetTop
Returns the top position of the object relative to the top side of its offsetParent element, in pixels.
offsetWidth
Returns the width of the visible area for an object, in pixels. The value contains the width with the padding, scrollBar, and the border, but does not include the margin.
outerHTML
Sets or retrieves the outer HTML content (the source code including the opening and closing tags) of an element.
outerText
Sets or returns the text content of an element including the text content of its descendants.
ownerDocument
Returns the document object that contains the current node.
parentElement
Returns the parent element of the object in the DOM hierarchy.
parentNode
Returns the parent element of the current node in the DOM hierarchy.
parentTextEdit
Returns the closest ancestor element of the current element in the DOM hierarchy that can be used to create a TextRange object.
previousElementSibling
93.5
 Returns a reference to the previous child element of the current element's parent.
previousSibling
Returns a reference to the previous node of the current element's parent.
readyState
Returns a string value that represents the state of the object.
runtimeStyle
Represents the overridden style settings for an element.
scopeName
Retrieves the local name of the namespace declared for the current element.
selected
Sets or retrieves the state of an option element.
sourceIndex
Returns the position of the current object in the all collection of the document.
style
Represents the inline style settings for an element or a CSS rule.
tabIndex
Specifies or returns the tabbing order for keyboard navigation using the TAB key.
tagName
Returns the tag name of the current element.
tagUrn
Sets or retrieves the Uniform Resource Name (URN) of the namespace declared for the current element.
text
Sets or returns a string that represents the text of an option element.
textContent
9
 Sets or returns the text content of an element including the text content of its descendants.
title
Specifies or returns a tooltip for an element.
uniqueID
Returns the unique identifier generated by the browser for the object.
value
Specifies or returns the value of an option or a select element.

Example HTML code 1:

This example illustrates the use of the option element:
 
<select>
    <option value="Apple">Apple</option>
    <option value="Pear">Pear</option>
    <option value="Peach">Peach</option>
</select>
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Example HTML code 2:

This example illustrates a multiple list control:
 
<select size="3" multiple="multiple">
    <option value="Apple">Apple</option>
    <option value="Pear">Pear</option>
    <option value="Peach">Peach</option>
</select>
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Example HTML code 3:

This example illustrates the use of the onchange event for a select element:
 
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function OnSelectionChange (select) {
            var selectedOption = select.options[select.selectedIndex];
            alert ("The selected option is " + selectedOption.value);
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    Select an item from the following list:<br />
    <select onchange="OnSelectionChange (this)">
        <option value="Apple" />Apple
        <option value="Pear" />Pear
        <option value="Peach" />Peach
    </select>
</body>
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Example HTML code 4:

This example shows how to create a selection list dynamically:
 
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var countries = ['Australia', 'Great Britain', 'Germany', 'United States'];

        function FillCountryList () {
            var countryList = document.getElementById ("country");

            for (var i=0; i < countries.length; i++) {
                    // Option (text, value)
                var countryOption = new Option (countries[i], countries[i]);
                countryList.options.add (countryOption);
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body onload="FillCountryList ()">
    <select id="country">
    </select>
</body>
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Example HTML code 5:

This example is similar to the previous one, but it uses 2-character alphabetical country codes for option values. It is useful if you want to store the selected country in database.
 
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var countries = ['Australia', 'AU', 'Great Britain', 'GB', 'Germany', 'DE', 'United States', 'US'];

        function FillCountryList () {
            var countryList = document.getElementById ("country");

            for (var i=0; i < countries.length; i += 2) {
                    // Option (text, value)
                var countryOption = new Option (countries[i], countries[i+1]);
                countryList.options.add (countryOption);
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body onload="FillCountryList ()">
    <select id="country">
    </select>
</body>
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Example HTML code 6:

The previous two examples create selection list from arrays. The following one creates a selection list from a string. It is useful if you use AJAX to fill the contents of a selection list. For further details about AJAX, see the page for the XMLHttpRequest object and the responseText property.
 
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
            // the response of an AJAX call (responseText)
        var httpResponse = "Australia,AU,Great Britain,GB,Germany,DE,United States,US";

        var countries = httpResponse.split (",");

        function FillCountryList () {
            var countryList = document.getElementById ("country");

            for (var i=0; i < countries.length; i += 2) {
                    // Option (text, value)
                var countryOption = new Option (countries[i], countries[i+1]);
                countryList.options.add (countryOption);
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body onload="FillCountryList ()">
    <select id="country">
    </select>
</body>
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Example HTML code 7:

This example illustrates how you can change the items in a select element depending on the selected item in another select element:
 
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var countriesAndCities = {};
        countriesAndCities['AU'] = ['Brisbane', 'Melbourne', 'Sydney'];
        countriesAndCities['GB'] = ['Liverpool', 'London', 'Manchester'];
        countriesAndCities['DE'] = ['Berlin', 'Hamburg', 'Munich'];
        countriesAndCities['US'] = ['Chicago', 'Los Angeles', 'New York'];

        function ChangeCityDropList () { 
            
            var countryDropList = document.getElementById ("country");
            var cityDropList = document.getElementById ("city");
            var selCountry = countryDropList.options[countryDropList.selectedIndex].value;

            // remove all cities
            while (cityDropList.options.length) {
                cityDropList.remove (0);
            }

            // add new cities
            var cities = countriesAndCities[selCountry];
            if (cities) {
                for (var i=0; i < cities.length; i++) {
                    var city = new Option (cities[i], i);
                    cityDropList.options.add (city);
                }
            }
        } 
    </script>
</head>
<body onload="ChangeCityDropList ();">   
    <select id="country" onchange="ChangeCityDropList();"> 
        <option value="">-- Country --</option> 
        <option value="AU">Australia</option> 
        <option value="GB">Great Britain</option> 
        <option value="DE" selected="selected">Germany</option> 
        <option value="US">United States</option> 
    </select> 

    <select id="city"> 
    </select> 
</body>
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Related pages:

optgroup
select

External links:

option element (MSDN)
option element (Safari Reference Library)
option element (W3C)
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