option element | option object

Denotes one choice in a select element.

HTML information

Closing Tag	forbidden
CSS Display	block

DOM Information

Inheritance Hierarchy

Node

Element

HTMLElement

option

Members

The option object has these types of members:

Events
Methods
Properties

Events

The option object has these events.

Event	Description
abort	Fires when the user aborts the download.
afterupdate	Fires on a databound object after successfully updating the associated data in the data source object.
beforecopy	Fires on the source object before the selection is copied to the system clipboard.
beforeupdate	Fires on a databound object before updating the associated data in the data source object.
blur	Fires when the object loses the input focus.
cellchange	Fires when data changes in the data provider.
change	Fires when the contents of the object or selection have changed.
dataavailable	Fires periodically as data arrives from data source objects that asynchronously transmit their data.
datasetchanged	Fires when the data set exposed by a data source object changes.
error	Fires when an error occurs during object loading.
errorupdate	Fires on a databound object when an error occurs while updating the associated data in the data source object.
filterchange	Fires when a visual filter changes state or completes a transition.
input	Occurs when the text content of an element is changed through the user interface.
layoutcomplete	Fires when the print or print preview layout process finishes filling the current LayoutRect object with content from the source document.
load	Fires immediately after the client loads the object.
losecapture	Fires when the object loses the mouse capture.
ondatasetcomplete	Fires to indicate that all data is available from the data source object.
onselect	Fires when the current selection changes.
propertychange	Fires when a property changes on the object. Note The onpropertychange event is only supported in conjunction with the legacy attachEvent IE-only event registration model, which has deprecated since Internet Explorer 9 in favor of the W3C standard "addEventListener" event model.
readystatechange	Fires when the state of the object has changed.
reset	Fires when the user resets a form.
resize	Fires when the size of the object is about to change.
rowenter	Fires to indicate that the current row has changed in the data source and new data values are available on the object.
rowexit	Fires just before the data source control changes the current row in the object.
rowsdelete	Fires when rows are about to be deleted from the recordset.
rowsinserted	Fires just after new rows are inserted in the current recordset.
selectstart	Fires when the object is being selected.

Methods

The option object has these methods.

Method	Description
addBehavior	Attaches a behavior to the element.
appendChild	Appends an element as a child to the object.
applyElement	Makes the element either a child or parent of another element.
attachEvent	Note attachEvent is no longer supported. Starting with IE11, use addEventListener. For info, see Compatibility changes. Binds the specified function to an event, so that the function gets called whenever the event fires on the object.
clearAttributes	Removes all attributes and values from the object.
click	Simulates a click by causing the onclick event to fire.
cloneNode	Copies a reference to the object from the document hierarchy.
compareDocumentPosition	Compares the position of two nodes in a document.
componentFromPoint	Returns the component located at the specified coordinates via certain events.
contains	Checks whether the given element is contained within the object.
detachEvent	Unbinds the specified function from the event, so that the function stops receiving notifications when the event fires.
doScroll	Note doScroll is no longer supported. Starting with IE11, use scrollLeft or scrollTop. For info, see Compatibility changes. Simulates a click on a scroll bar component.
dragDrop	Initiates a drag event.
fireEvent	Fires a specified event on the object.
getAdjacentText	Returns the adjacent text string.
getAttribute	Retrieves the value of the specified attribute.
getAttributeNode	Retrieves an attribute object referenced by the attribute.name property.
getAttributeNodeNS	Gets an attribute object that matches the specified namespace and name.
getAttributeNS	Gets the value of the specified attribute within the specified namespace.
getBoundingClientRect	Retrieves an object that specifies the bounds of a collection of TextRectangle objects.
getClientRects	Retrieves a collection of rectangles that describes the layout of the contents of an object or range within the client. Each rectangle describes a single line.
getElementsByClassName	Gets a collection of objects that are based on the value of the class attribute.
getElementsByTagNameNS	Gets a collection of objects that are based on the specified element names within a specified namespace.
hasAttribute	Determines whether an attribute with the specified name exists.
hasAttributeNS	Determines whether an attribute that has the specified namespace and name exists.
hasAttributes	Determines whether one or more attributes exist for the object.
hasChildNodes	Returns a value that indicates whether the object has children.
insertAdjacentElement	Inserts an element at the specified location.
insertAdjacentHTML	Inserts the given HTML text into the element at the location.
insertAdjacentText	Inserts the given text into the element at the specified location.
insertBefore	Inserts an element into the document hierarchy as a child node of a parent object.
isDefaultNamespace	Indicates whether or not a namespace is the default namespace for a document.
isEqualNode	Determines if two nodes are equal.
isSameNode	Determines if two node references refer to the same node.
isSupported	Returns a value indicating whether or not the object supports a specific DOM standard.
lookupNamespaceURI	Gets the URI of the namespace associated with a namespace prefix, if any.
lookupPrefix	Gets the namespace prefix associated with a URI, if any.
mergeAttributes	Copies all read/write attributes to the specified element.
msMatchesSelector	Determines whether an object matches the specified selector.
normalize	Merges adjacent DOM objects to produce a normalized document object model.
releaseCapture	Removes mouse capture from the object in the current document.
removeAttribute	Removes an attribute from an object.
removeAttributeNode	Removes an attribute object from the object.
removeAttributeNS	Removes the specified attribute from the object.
removeBehavior	Detaches a behavior from the element.
removeChild	Removes a child node from the object.
removeNode	Removes the object from the document hierarchy.
replaceAdjacentText	Replaces the text adjacent to the element.
replaceChild	Replaces an existing child element with a new child element.
replaceNode	Replaces the object with another element.
setActive	Sets the object as active without setting focus to the object.
setAttribute	Sets the value of the specified attribute.
setAttributeNode	Sets an attribute object node as part of the object.
setAttributeNodeNS	Sets an attribute object as part of the object.
setAttributeNS	Sets the value of the specified attribute within the specified namespace.
setCapture	Sets the mouse capture to the object that belongs to the current document.
swapNode	Exchanges the location of two objects in the document hierarchy.

Properties

The option object has these properties.

Property	Description
attributes	Retrieves a collection of attributes of the object.
canHaveChildren	Gets a value indicating whether the object can contain child objects.
canHaveHTML	Retrieves the value indicating whether the object can contain rich HTML markup.
childElementCount	Retrieves the number of immediate child nodes of the current element or a zero if the element does not contain any child nodes. childElementCount does not return all child nodes, only child nodes that are nodeType =1, or element nodes.
className	Sets or retrieves the class of the object.
clientHeight	Retrieves the height of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar.
clientLeft	Retrieves the distance between the offsetLeft property and the true left side of the client area.
clientTop	Retrieves the distance between the offsetTop property and the true top of the client area.
clientWidth	Retrieves the width of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar.
constructor	Returns a reference to the constructor of an object.
dataFormatAs	Sets or retrieves the rendering format for the data supplied to the object.
dataSrc	Sets or retrieves the source of the data for data binding.
defaultSelected	Sets or retrieves the status of an option.
dir	Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object.
disabled	Sets or retrieves a value that indicates whether the user can interact with the object.
firstChild	Gets a reference to the first child in the childNodes collection of the object.
firstElementChild	Retrieves a reference to the first child element, or null if there are no child elements.
form	Retrieves a reference to the form that the object is embedded in.
id	Sets or retrieves the string identifying the object.
index	Sets or retrieves the ordinal position of an option in a list box.
innerHTML	Sets or retrieves the HTML between the start and end tags of the object.
innerText	Sets or retrieves the text between the start and end tags of the object.
isContentEditable	Gets the value that indicates whether the user can edit the contents of the object.
isDisabled	Gets the value that indicates whether the user can interact with the object.
isMultiLine	Retrieves the value indicating whether the content of the object contains one or more lines.
isTextEdit	Retrieves whether a TextRange object can be created using the object.
label	Sets or retrieves a value that you can use to implement your own label functionality for the object.
lang	Sets or retrieves the language to use.
language	Sets or retrieves the language in which the current script is written. Note This has been superceded by the type attribute for the script element. If you are using javascript alone, you don't need to specify a type or language with the script element.
lastChild	Gets a reference to the last child in the childNodes collection of an object.
lastElementChild	Retrieves a reference to the last child element or null if there are no child elements.
localName	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
namespaceURI	Retrieves the namespace URI of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
nextElementSibling	Retrieves a reference to the sibling element that immediately follows or null if the element does not have any sibling elements that follow it.
nextSibling	Retrieves a reference to the next child of the parent for the object.
nodeName	Gets the name of a particular type of node.
nodeType	Retrieves the type of the requested node.
nodeValue	Gets or sets the value of a node.
offsetHeight	Retrieves the height of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property.
offsetLeft	Retrieves the calculated left position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property.
offsetParent	Retrieves a reference to the container object that defines the offsetTop and offsetLeft properties of the object.
offsetTop	Retrieves the calculated top position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property.
offsetWidth	Retrieves the width of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property.
outerHTML	Sets or retrieves the object and its content in HTML.
outerText	Sets or retrieves the text of the object.
ownerDocument	Retrieves the document object associated with the node.
parentElement	Retrieves the parent object in the object hierarchy.
parentNode	Retrieves the parent object in the document hierarchy.
parentTextEdit	Retrieves the container object in the document hierarchy that can be used to create a TextRange containing the original object.
prefix	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
previousElementSibling	Retrieves a reference to the immediately preceding sibling element or null if the element does not have any preceding siblings.
previousSibling	Gets a reference to the previous child of the parent for the object.
readyState	Retrieves the current state of the object.
recordNumber	Retrieves the ordinal record from the data set that generated the object.
role	Sets or retrieves the role for this element.
scopeName	Gets the namespace defined for the element. This property is not supported for Windows apps using JavaScript.
scrollHeight	Retrieves the scrolling height of the object.
scrollLeft	Sets or retrieves the distance between the left edge of the object and the leftmost portion of the content currently visible in the window.
scrollTop	Sets or retrieves the distance between the top of the object and the topmost portion of the content currently visible in the window.
scrollWidth	Retrieves the scrolling width of the object.
selected	Sets or retrieves whether the option in the list box is the default item.
sourceIndex	Retrieves the ordinal position of the object, in source order, as the object appears in the document's all collection.
style	Sets an inline style for the element.
tagName	Retrieves the tag name of the object.
tagUrn	Sets or gets the URN specified in the namespace declaration. This property is not supported for Windows apps using JavaScript.
text	Sets or retrieves the text string specified by the option tag.
textContent	Sets or retrieves the text content of an object and any child objects.
title	Sets or retrieves advisory information (a ToolTip) for the object.
uniqueID	Retrieves an autogenerated, unique identifier for the object.
uniqueNumber	Retrieves the element's unique number.
value	Sets or retrieves the value which is returned to the server when the form control is submitted.

Standards information

HTML 4.01 Specification, Section 17.6

Remarks

As of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and later, the option elements are part of the all collection. For earlier versions, you can gain access to these elements by applying the options collection to the select element.

You can create new option elements dynamically with the document.createElement method, but you cannot change properties until the new element is added to a select object. Or, you can create fully formed elements by using the Option object, as follows:


 var opt = new Option( 'Text', 'Value', fDefaultSelected );

You can add option elements only to a select element that is located in the same window where the option elements are created.

Except for background-color and color, style settings applied through the style object for the option element are ignored. In addition, style settings applied directly to individual options override those applied to the containing select element as a whole.

Examples

This example uses the option element to create individual items in a drop-down list box.

JavaScript


<select id="oCars" onchange="fnChange()" size="1">
  <option value="1">BMW</option>
  <option value="2">PORSCHE</option>
  <option selected="" value="3">MERCEDES</option>
</select> <textarea id="oData"></textarea>

This example uses the options collection to append the selected item of the list box in a text area.