Question

I am trying to populate a drop down list

I have the following:

    $('#dd_deg ').append($('<option></option>').val('hello').html('va1'));

What is the purpose of .val and .html. I see that val1 is what shows in the drop down but what is the purpose of .val

Answer 1

According to the docs, .val(value)

Set the value of each element in the set of matched elements.

And .html(htmlString)

Set the HTML contents of each element in the set of matched elements.

You typically use val to get/set the value of input elements, and html to get/set the inner html of any element.