JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

Select.options[] — the choices in a Select object

Availability

JavaScript 1.0; enhanced in JavaScript 1.1

Synopsis

                  select.options[i]select.options.length

Description

The options[] property contains an array of Option objects, each of which describes one of the selection options presented within the Select object select. The options.length property specifies the number of elements in the array, as does the select .length property. See the Option object for further details.

In JavaScript 1.1, you can modify the options displayed in a Select object in any of the following ways:

• If you set options.length to 0, all options in the Select object are cleared.

• If you set options.length to a value less than the current value, the number of options in the Select object is decreased, and those at the end of the array disappear.

• If you set an element in the options[] array to null, that option is removed from the Select object, and the elements above it in the array are moved down, changing their indices to occupy the new space in the array.

• If you create a new Option object with the Option( ) constructor (see the “Option” reference entry), you can add that option to the end of list of options in the Select object by assigning the newly created option to a position at the end of the options[] array. To do this, set options[options.length].

See Also

Option