asked on

select.options as associative array

I want to access the select.options collection as an associative array, but can't seem to get it to work, e.g.

<select>
<option id="option1" value="nar">blah
</select>
<script>
refToSelect.options["option1"].value= "hello";
</script>

As just about everything in JavaScript is an associative array, I thought this would work, but it doesn't.

Any ideas on how to make it work (and don't tell me to loop through the options and match - thats what I want to avoid).

Leon

knightEknight

document.getElementById("option1").value

knightEknight

Astroman

ASKER

I know that strictly that works, but I'd prefer (from a code readability point of view) to reference it via the options, or at least the select object, so it's clear what the code is doing.

I guess I could do it using the children collection of select?

Cheers,

Leon

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

knightEknight

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Astroman

ASKER

I'll leave this a bit longer, but I guess this is the best way. If so, I'll give you the points. Thanks kek.

Astroman

ASKER

Dunno what to do now. Turns out my original post was correct, but my (SS generated) code had the element id as a number, which is wrong and was breaking it.

So the answer is, 'options' is an associative array (as I suspected), and I'm silly.

I'll give you the points, because someone should have them, and at least it got me debuggin it properly....

knightEknight

I see, I thought that it should have worked as you originally described it, but I just assumed not since you had tried it. Oh well, thanks for the points, and for the exercise.

Astroman

ASKER

actually, I'm beginning to feel a complete fool. Having ( I thought) verified that it did actually work, it seems to have stopped working now. I dunno. type first, think later today.

'children' works for sure, anyway, so I'm happy (ish)