Question

Is it possible to trigger a change event on a select field when the selectedIndex or val is set with jQuery?

I’ve tried it and it doesn’t seem to work. I’m attempting to replace a select field with one of my own design. The issue is if i attached a change event to a select field, when the index is changed it needs to fire that event.

Is there a way to do this?

var a = $("a");

$("a").on("click", function() {
  
  $("#selectList")[0].selectedIndex = a.index($(this));
  
    //now fire event

	return false;
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<a href="#">Trigger 1</a>
<a href="#">Trigger 2</a>
<a href="#">Trigger 3</a>

<select id="selectList">
  <option value="1">1</option>
  <option value="2">2</option>
  <option value="3">3</option>
</select>

EDIT: @xSaint32 answered this, by using jQuery’s trigger method.

Answer 1

@xSaint32 answered this, by using jQuery’s trigger method.

var a = $("a"),
    select = $("#selectList");

$("a").on("click", function() {
  
  select[0].selectedIndex = a.index($(this));
  
  select.trigger( "change" );

  return false;
});

select.on("change", function() {
  
  alert("My index changed");

  return false;
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<a href="#">Trigger 1</a>
<a href="#">Trigger 2</a>
<a href="#">Trigger 3</a>

<select id="selectList">
  <option value="1">1</option>
  <option value="2">2</option>
  <option value="3">3</option>
</select>