How to do this in jQuery

Question

I have the following code:

var tempIdx = document.getElementById('cityBuild').selectedIndex;
var tempBuilding = document.getElementById('cityBuild').options[tempIdx].value;

// Do stuff with tempBuilding

I spent some time trying to do it in jQuery under the assumption it'd be easier, it wasn't. I tried what was given at this site but is never returned any of the values. Am I doing something wrong or is this something that jQuery simply doesn't do?

The item is a select box (single selection only) and I want to get the value from it.

Answer 1

jQuery knows how to work with select elements. You can get the value as any other input:

var value = $('#cityBuild').val();

Answer 2

Little variation to Eran answer:

var value = $('#cityBuild option:selected').val();

EDIT: now Eran is in the right. :)