Keeping jQuerys .change() from running on page load

Question

I have a page that has multiple select lists and when ever one of the select list changes using jQuery's .change() function I change the text in a span next to the select list. When the page loads there is already some text in every span (the text different for each span). The problem is that when the page loads the .change() function loops through all of the select lists changing the text in every span. I don't want the text in the span to change until a user selects a different item in the list. I can't just check to see if there is text in the span because if a user does change the selected item it doesn't matter if there is any text or not, I just don't want to to replace the text when the page loads. So, how can I get the .change() function to stop firing when the page is loaded? The code:

JS/jQuery

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("select").change(function () {
    var txt = $(this).val();
    $(this).next('span').text(txt);
  }).trigger('change');
});

HTML (repeated many times)

<select name="animal[]">
<option value="dog" selected="selected">dog</option>
<option value="cat">cat</option>
<option value="bird">bird</option>
<option value="snake">snake</option>
</select>
<span class="out">text that shouldn't be replaced until user changes selected item</span>

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

You just need to remove this call:

.trigger('change')

It's what's invoking the $("select").change(function () { ... }) handler that you just bound. The default behavior is to wait for the change event to occur...a .trigger('change') or .change() (no parameters) will simulate the change event, making that handler go to work.

Answer 2

The "change" is triggering because your code is telling it to! That call to .trigger("change") says, "run the 'change' event handler please". So, take that out.

Now, the thing is, the reason your code was written that way was probably to make sure that the settings of the <select> elements really reflects what the behavior is supposed to be when users manually make the same changes. For example, sometimes there are forms where part of the inputs are supposed to be disabled unless a <select> is set to a certain option. By triggering the "change" event on page load, the code could make sure that those rules are in force. If you just take out that trigger, things may not work right, is what I'm saying. That handler looks pretty simple, so maybe the problem is that this code was cut-and-pasted from somewhere else.