[javascript] Retrieving the text of the selected <option> in <select> element

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?

this.options[this.selectedIndex].innerText

The options property contains all the <options> - from there you can look at .text

document.getElementById('test').options[0].text == 'Text One'

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.

You can use selectedIndex to retrieve the current selected option:

el = document.getElementById('elemId')
selectedText = el.options[el.selectedIndex].text

document.getElementById('test').options[document.getElementById('test').selectedIndex].text;

selectElement.options[selectElement.selectedIndex].text;

References:

• options collection, selectedIndex property: HTML DOM Select Object
• text property: HTML DOM Option Object
• exactly the answer of this question: Option text Property

Easy, simple way:

const select = document.getElementById('selectID');
const selectedOption = [...select.options].find(option => option.selected).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>

Similar to @artur just without jQuery, with plain javascript:

// Using @Sean-bright's "elt" variable

var selection=elt.options[elt.selectedIndex].innerHTML;

If you use jQuery then you can write the following code:

$("#selectId option:selected").html();

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);