Pass the value of a SELECT to a Javascript function via the onchange event?

Question

I have a HTML page that contains a search box containing a number of textboxes.

The first part of the search box is a SELECT dropdown list that contains a variety of report types. Each report type requires 1 or more of textboxes to be filled in to filter the query results. My goal is hide the textboxes that are not required by the current report type.

How do I pass the currently selected value from the SELECT to the Javascript function via the onchange event?

<select name="report_type" onchange="hide();">
<option value="full_history">Full History</option>
<option value="partial_history">Partial History</option>            
</select>

Answer 1

<select name="report_type" onchange="hide(this.value);">
<option value="full_history">Full History</option>
<option value="partial_history">Partial History</option>            
</select>

When doing this the function have whatever value the select currently has.