How to hide optgroup/option elements?

Question

Is there a way to hide option or optgroup HTML elements? I've tried calling hide() in jQuery, and also using regular Javascript to set style.display='none'.

It works in Firefox but not in any other browsers. Actually removing them from the DOM does work, so perhaps there's a way to save each DOM element when it's removed, and reinsert them in the same place?

My HTML is like this:

<select name="propsearch[area]" id="propsearch_area">
    <option value="0">- Any -</option>
    <optgroup label="Bristol">
        <option  value="Hotwells">Hotwells</option>
        <option  value="Montpelier">Montpelier</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Cardiff">
        <option  value="Heath">Heath</option>
        <option  value="Roath">Roath</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Exeter">
        <option  value="Pennsylvania Road">Pennsylvania Road</option>
        <option  value="Lower North Street">Lower North Street</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Swansea">
        <option  value="Brynmill">Brynmill</option>
        <option  value="Uplands">Uplands</option>
    </optgroup>
</select>

Answer 1

You can not do this in IE (by design).

If you want to know how to achieve the same effect, see my solution here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2679144/how-can-i-restore-the-order-of-an-incomplete-select-list-to-its-original-order/2679320#2679320

Basically you store the original list of options and then re-create the list from scratch only with options you want