In the following:
<select id="test"> <option value="1">Test One</option> <option value="2">Test Two</option> </select> How can I get the text of the selected option (i.e. "Test One" or "Test Two") using JavaScript
document.getElementsById('test').selectedValue returns 1 or 2, what property returns the text of the selected option?
function getSelectedText(elementId) { var elt = document.getElementById(elementId); if (elt.selectedIndex == -1) return null; return elt.options[elt.selectedIndex].text; } var text = getSelectedText('test'); 
If you use jQuery then you can write the following code:
$("#selectId option:selected").html(); 
.text()
$("#selectId option[selected]"), which will select the option which has the "selected" attribute but might not be currently selected.
document.getElementById('test').options[document.getElementById('test').selectedIndex].text; 
Under HTML5 you are be able to do this:
document.getElementById('test').selectedOptions[0].text MDN's documentation at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLSelectElement/selectedOptions indicates full cross-browser support (as of at least December 2017), including Chrome, Firefox, Edge and mobile browsers, but excluding Internet Explorer.
selectElement.options[selectElement.selectedIndex].text; References:
The options property contains all the <options> - from there you can look at .text
document.getElementById('test').options[0].text == 'Text One' You can use selectedIndex to retrieve the current selected option:
el = document.getElementById('elemId') selectedText = el.options[el.selectedIndex].text this.options[this.selectedIndex].innerText
If you found this thread and wanted to know how to get the selected option text via event here is sample code:
alert(event.target.options[event.target.selectedIndex].text); Use the select list object, to identify its own selected options index. From there - grab the inner HTML of that index. And now you have the text string of that option.
<select onchange="alert(this.options[this.selectedIndex].innerHTML);"> <option value="">Select Actions</option> <option value="1">Print PDF</option> <option value="2">Send Message</option> <option value="3">Request Review</option> <option value="4">Other Possible Actions</option> </select> 
.innerHTML gets all children and their attributes. Whilst it works when an element has no children, if you have an element with children it returns way more than is intended.The :checked selector can be used with document.querySelector to retrieve the selected option.
let selectedText = document.querySelector('#selectId option:checked').text; // or let selectedText = document.querySelector('#selectId') .querySelector('option:checked').text; document.querySelector('button').addEventListener('click', function(e) { console.log(document.querySelector('#selectId option:checked').text); });<select id="selectId"> <option>a</option> <option>b</option> <option>c</option> </select> <button> Get selected text </button>For select elements with the multiple attribute, document.querySelectorAll can be used to obtain all selected options.
let selectedText = [...document.querySelectorAll('#selectId option:checked')] .map(o => o.text); document.querySelector('button').addEventListener('click', function(e) { let selectedText = [...document.querySelectorAll('#selectId option:checked')] .map(o => o.text); console.log(selectedText); });<select id="selectId" multiple> <option>a</option> <option>b</option> <option>c</option> </select> <button> Get selected text </button>Similar to @artur just without jQuery, with plain javascript:
// Using @Sean-bright's "elt" variable
var selection=elt.options[elt.selectedIndex].innerHTML; Easy, simple way:
const select = document.getElementById('selectID'); const selectedOption = [...select.options].find(option => option.selected).text; 
It is pretty simple. In javascript anything with an ID doesn't need document.queryselector or $('#test') you can just use test. Then you simply loop over the selectedOptions which is apart of javascript and you can add it to a new array and use that data how ever you want.
let selectedItems = []; for ( var i = 0; i < test.selectedOptions.length; i++) { selectedItems.push(test.selectedOptions[i].text); } Also
// if you want values selectedItems.push(test.selectedOptions[i].value); 