Question

I have this HTML:

<select class="business_types_select" name="business_type_id">
<option value="0" selected="selected">Select a Business Type</option>
     <option value="54">Bakery</option>
      <option value="55">Tobacco</option>
</select>

and if I select Bakery and then try:

 $(".business_types_select").val()

I get 54, but how do i get the text Bakery? If I try

 $(".business_types_select").text()

I get:

" Select a Business Type Bakery Tobacco "

Answer 1

Try:

$(".business_types_select :selected").text()

Without this, the .text() is behaving like it should, which is to bring back all of the text from that particular class. Adding :selected to the selector narrows it down to just the one you have selected.

Remember to cache your selectors if you’re going to be operating on them often for performance.