Is old post but here is one simple function what act like jQuery plugin.
$.fn.selectOption = function(val){
this.val(val)
.find('option')
.removeAttr('selected')
.parent()
.find('option[value="'+ val +'"]')
.attr('selected', 'selected')
.parent()
.trigger('change');
return this;
};
You just simple can do something like this:
$('.id_100').selectOption('val2');
Reson why use this is because you change selected satemant into DOM what is crossbrowser supported and also will trigger change to you can catch it.
Is basicaly human action simulation.