Question

I have two selects:

<select name="select1" id="select1">
    <option value="1">Fruit</option>
    <option value="2">Animal</option>
    <option value="3">Bird</option>
    <option value="4">Car</option>
</select>

<select name="select2" id="select2">
    <option value="1">Banana</option>
    <option value="1">Apple</option>
    <option value="1">Orange</option>
    <option value="2">Wolf</option>
    <option value="2">Fox</option>
    <option value="2">Bear</option>
    <option value="3">Eagle</option>
    <option value="3">Hawk</option>
    <option value="4">BWM<option>
</select>

How do I do that with jQuery if I choose Fruit in the first select? The second select would show me only Fruits – Banana, Apple, Orange. If I choose Bird in the first select, the second select would show me only Birds – Eagle, Hawk. And so on…

I tried to do it with this piece of jQuery code:

$("#select1").change(function() {
    var id = $(this).val();
    $('#select2 option[value!='+id+']').remove();
});

Unfortunately, it removes almost everything, and I have no idea how to bring back some options. I also read something about clone, but I don’t know how to use it in this case.

Answer 1

$("#select1").change(function() {
  if ($(this).data('options') === undefined) {
    /*Taking an array of all options-2 and kind of embedding it on the select1*/
    $(this).data('options', $('#select2 option').clone());
  }
  var id = $(this).val();
  var options = $(this).data('options').filter('[value=' + id + ']');
  $('#select2').html(options);
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<select name="select1" id="select1">
  <option value="1">Fruit</option>
  <option value="2">Animal</option>
  <option value="3">Bird</option>
  <option value="4">Car</option>
</select>


<select name="select2" id="select2">
  <option value="1">Banana</option>
  <option value="1">Apple</option>
  <option value="1">Orange</option>
  <option value="2">Wolf</option>
  <option value="2">Fox</option>
  <option value="2">Bear</option>
  <option value="3">Eagle</option>
  <option value="3">Hawk</option>
  <option value="4">BWM<option>
</select>

Using jQuery data() to store data

I guess hiding elements doesn’t work cross-browser(2012), I have’nt tested
it myself.