JQuery create new select option

Question

Hi

I have the below functions in regular javascript creating select options. Is there a way I can do this with JQuery without having to use the form object? Perhaps storing the options as an array of json objects and parsing this in the calling function...

function populate(form)
{
form.options.length = 0;
form.options[0] = new Option("Select a city / town in Sweden","");
form.options[1] = new Option("Melbourne","Melbourne");
}

Below is how I call the function above:

populate(document.form.county); //county is the id of the dropdownlist to populate.    

Many Thanks,

Answer 1

What about

var option = $('<option/>');
option.attr({ 'text': 'myText', 'value': 'myValue' });
$('#county').append(option);

Answer 2

Something like:

function populate(selector) {
  $(selector)
    .append('<option value="foo">foo</option>')
    .append('<option value="bar">bar</option>')
}

populate('#myform .myselect');

Or even:

$.fn.populate = function() {
  $(this)
    .append('<option value="foo">foo</option>')
    .append('<option value="bar">bar</option>')
}

$('#myform .myselect').populate();

Answer 3

How about

$('#county').append(
    $('<option />')
        .text('Select a city / town in Sweden')
        .val(''),
    $('<option />')
        .text('Melbourne')
        .val('Melbourne')
);

Answer 4

This is confusing. When you say "form object", do you mean "<select> element"? If not, your code won't work, so I'll assume your form variable is in fact a reference to a <select> element. Why do you want to rewrite this code? What you have has worked in all scriptable browsers since around 1996, and won't stop working any time soon. Doing it with jQuery will immediately make your code slower, more error-prone and less compatible across browsers.

Here's a function using your current code a starting point that takes an object and populates a <select> element:

<select id="mySelect"></select>

<script type="text/javascript>

function populateSelect(select, optionsData) {
    var options = select.options, o, selected;
    options.length = 0;
    for (var i = 0, len = optionsData.length; i < len; ++i) {
        o = optionsData[i];
        selected = !!o.selected;
        options[i] = new Option(o.text, o.value, selected, selected);
    }
}

var optionsData = [
    {
        text: "Select a city / town in Sweden",
        value: ""
    },
    {
        text: "Melbourne",
        value: "Melbourne",
        selected: true
    }
];

populateSelect(document.getElementById("mySelect"), optionsData);

</script>