Question

I’d like to add an <option> element to a <select> element where the <option> element’s text contains an HTML entity: &mdash;

In HTML, the code would look like this:

<select name='test' id='test'>     <option value=''>&mdash; Select One &mdash;</option> </select> 

My JavaScript code looks like this:

function selectOne() {   var e = document.getElementById('test');   e.options[0] = new Option('— Select One —', ''); } 

However, as you will see if you test this, the &mdash; becomes escaped. I had the same outcome when I tried:

e.options[o].text = '— Select One —'; 

(Observed behavior was in Internet Explorer 7 … did not test with Firefox, Safari, etc. — Internet Explorer 7 is the only browser I need at the moment.)

Answer 1

I just realized I could use a Unicode JavaScript escape:

e.options[0] = new Option('\u2014 Select One \u2014', '');