Question

:contains just isnt doing it for me here. Its too coarse. and I cant seem to figure out the right way to get it.

(.js fiddle below)

$(function() {
    $('#my_button').click(function() {
        var cookieVal = "ab"; //This is what I want to find
        var select = "combo0";

        var optionThatMatchesCookie = $("#" + select + " option:contains('" + cookieVal + "')").val();
        alert(optionThatMatchesCookie); //returns the wrong entry! (returns 'cabd' not 'ab')

        if (typeof(optionThatMatchesCookie) != "undefined") {
            //now put that in the combobox
            $('#' + select).val(optionThatMatchesCookie);
        }
    });
});

<select class="inputfield" id="combo0" name="jobType">
    <option selected="selected">-select-</option>
    <option id="1">sssssssssss</option>
    <option id="18">fffffffffff</option>
    <option id="47">cabd</option>
    <option id="3">LPN/LVN</option>
    <option id="22">bbbbb</option>
    <option id="17">hhhhhhhhhh</option>
    <option id="15">aaaaaaa</option>
    <option id="16">zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz</option>
    <option id="5">ab</option>
    <option id="44">YYYYYYYYY</option>
    <option id="19">XXXXXX</option>
</select>
<input type="button" id="my_button" value="test me"/>

http://jsfiddle.net/KGabbert/mCDer/3/

Answer 1

It returns the cabd option because that contains “ab”, and that’s exactly what :contains is used for. If you’re wanting to return the value of the option that exactly matches, you could use filter:

var optionThatMatchesCookie = $("#" + select + " option").filter(function() {
     return $(this).val() === cookieVal;  
}).val();

Here’s a working example.

As an aside, note that typeof is an operator, not a method, so you shouldn’t put the operand in parentheses:

typeof optionThatMatchesCookie

Also note that you could shorten your code significantly to just this:

$(function() {
    $('#my_button').click(function() {
        var cookieVal = "ab",
            select = "combo0";
        $("#" + select).val(cookieVal); 
    });
});

If cookieVal does not match the value of one of the option elements then the value will not change. See another working example here.