Question

I have a UL LI menu that I am turning into a select dropdown when you’re viewing it on a mobile.

I want to now indent child items e.g

• List item 1
• — Child item 1
• —- Child Child item 1
• — Child item 2
• List item 2

Rather than listing in one single line.

I’m happy to just add nbsp to keep things easy – or add classes and CSS if more suitable.

The code I am currently using to generate the select is:

$("<select />").appendTo("#primary-nav");

  $("<option />", {
     "selected": "selected",
     "value"   : "",
     "text"    : "Go to..."
  }).appendTo("#primary-nav select");

  $("#primary-nav a").each(function() {
   var el = $(this);
   $("<option />", {
       "value"   : el.attr("href"),
       "text"    : el.text()
   }).appendTo("#primary-nav select");
  });

  $("#primary-nav select").change(function() {
    window.location = $(this).find("option:selected").val();
  });  

The menu it is generating from is built like:

<ul>
  <li><a>Item 1</a>
      <ul>
          <li><a>Child Item 1</a>
              <ul>
                  <li><a>Child Item 1</a></li>
              </ul>
          </li>
          <li><a>Child Item 2</a></li>
      </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a>Item 2</a></li>
</ul>

Here is a fiddle with an example: http://jsfiddle.net/C5S32/

Answer 1

This should do what you want, and it’s pretty customizable. http://jsfiddle.net/C5S32/7/

var options = '<option selected>Go to...</option>';
$('#primary-nav').find('a').each(function () {
    var text = $(this).text(),
        depth = $(this).parent().parents('ul').length,
        depthChar = '',
        i = 1;
    for (i; i < depth; i++) { depthChar += '&ndash;&nbsp;'; }
    options += '<option>' + depthChar + text + '</option>';
});
$('<select />').append(options).appendTo('#primary-nav');

As a side note, in your code you’re appending stuff many times. It’s better to append everything in one call to avoid excessive reflows.