[javascript] Angular 4 setting selected option in Dropdown

several questions about this and diffrent answeres. But none of them realy answeres the question. So again:

Setting default of a Dropdown select by value isnt working in my case. why? This is from the dynamic Form tutorial of Angular 4:

<select [id]="question.key" [formControlName]="question.key">
      <option *ngFor="let opt of question.options" [value]="opt.key" [selected]="opt.selected">{{opt.selected+opt.value}}</option>
</select>

It doesnt select anything. Available options are:

• trueaaa
• falsebbb
• falseccc

But static true:

<option ... [selected]="true">...</option>

selects the last value (all true). It also works with a private variable boolvar = true and using it in [selected]="boolvar"

I dont understand the difference between the "opt" object and the class variable??

To preselect an option when the form is initialized, the value of the select element must be set to an element attribute of the array you are iterating over and setting the value of option to. Which is the key attribute in this case.

From your example.

<select [id]="question.key" [formControlName]="question.key">
  <option *ngFor="let opt of question.options" [value]="opt.key"</option>
</select>

You are iterating over 'options' to create the select options. So the value of select must be set to the key attribute of an item in options(the one you want to display on initialization). This will display the default of select as the option whose value matches the value you set for select.

You can achieve this by setting the value of the select element in the onInit method like so.

ngOnInit(): void{
    myForm : new FormGroup({
       ...
       question.key : new FormControl(null)
    })
    // Get desired initial value to display on <select>
    desiredValue = question.options.find(opt => opt === initialValue)
    this.myForm.get(question.key).setValue(desiredValue.key)
}

Lets see an example with Select control
binded to: $scope.cboPais,
source: $scope.geoPaises

HTML

<select 
  ng-model="cboPais"  
  ng-options="item.strPais for item in geoPaises"
  ></select>

JavaScript

$http.get(strUrl2).success(function (response) {
  if (response.length > 0) {
    $scope.geoPaises = response; //Data source
    nIndex = indexOfUnsortedArray(response, 'iPais', default_values.iPais); //array index of default value, using a custom function to search
    if (nIndex >= 0) {
      $scope.cboPais = response[nIndex]; //if index of array was found
    } else {
      $scope.cboPais = response[0]; //select the first element of array
    }
    $scope.geo_getDepartamentos();
  }
}

Remove [selected] from option tag:

<option *ngFor="let opt of question.options" [value]="opt.key">
  {{opt.selected+opt.value}}
</option>

And in your form builder add:

key: this.question.options.filter(val => val.selected === true).map(data => data.key)

If you want to select a value as default, in your form builder give it a value :

this.myForm = this.FB.group({
    mySelect: [this.options[0].key, [/* Validators here */]]
});

Now in your HTML :

<form [formGroup]="myForm">
    <select [formControlName]="mySelect">
        <option *ngFor="let opt of options" [value]="opt.key">ANY TEXT YOU WANT HERE</option>
    </select>
</form>

What my code does is giving your select a value, that is equal to the first value of your options list. This is how you select an option as default in Angular, selected is useless.

Here is my example:

<div class="form-group">
    <label for="contactMethod">Contact method</label>
    <select 
        name="contactMethod" 
        id="contactMethod" 
        class="form-control"
        [(ngModel)]="contact.contactMethod">
        <option *ngFor="let method of contactMethods" [value]="method.id">{{ method.label }}</option>
    </select>
</div>

And in component you must get values from select:

contactMethods = [
    { id: 1, label: "Email" },
    { id: 2, label: "Phone" }
]

So, if you want select to have a default value selected (and proabbly you want that):

contact = {
    firstName: "CFR",
    comment: "No comment",
    subscribe: true,
    contactMethod: 2 // this id you'll send and get from backend
}