Microsoft Developer Network

Denotes one choice in a SELECT element.

Members Table

The following table lists the members exposed by the option object.

Attributes/Properties

Show: Attributes/Properties Behaviors Collections Events Methods Objects Styles

Attribute Property Description ariaBusy   Sets or retrieves the busy state of this element. ariaChecked   Sets or retrieves the checked state of this element. ariaDisabled   Sets or retrieves the disabled state of this element. ariaExpanded   Sets or retrieves the expanded state of this element. ariaHaspopup   Sets or retrieves a value indicating whether this element may display a pop-up window. ariaHidden   Sets or retrieves the hidden state of this element. ariaInvalid   Sets or retrieves the invalid state of this element. ariaLevel   Sets or retrieves the level of this element. ariaMultiselect   Sets or retrieves the multiple-selection state of this element. ariaPosinset   Sets or retrieves the current position of an item within a set. ariaPressed   Sets or retrieves the pressed state of a button that can be toggled. ariaReadonly   Sets or retrieves the read-only state of this element. ariaRequired   Sets or retrieves the form-completion requirement of this element. ariaSecret   Sets or retrieves the secret state of this element. ariaSelected   Sets or retrieves the selection state of this element. ariaSetsize   Sets or retrieves the set size of this element. attributes   Retrieves a collection of attributes of the object. canHaveChildren Gets a value indicating whether the object can contain child objects. canHaveHTML Sets or retrieves the value indicating whether the object can contain rich HTML markup. CLASS className Sets or retrieves the class of the object. clientHeight Retrieves the height of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar. clientLeft Retrieves the distance between the offsetLeft property and the true left side of the client area. clientTop Retrieves the distance between the offsetTop property and the true top of the client area. clientWidth Retrieves the width of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar. defaultSelected Sets or retrieves the status of the option. DIR dir Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object. DISABLED disabled Sets or retrieves a value that indicates whether the user can interact with the object. firstChild Retrieves a reference to the first child in the childNodes collection of the object. form Retrieves a reference to the form that the object is embedded in. ID id Retrieves the string identifying the object. index Sets or retrieves the ordinal position of an option in a list box. innerHTML Sets or retrieves the HTML between the start and end tags of the object. innerText Sets or retrieves the text between the start and end tags of the object. isContentEditable Gets the value that indicates whether the user can edit the contents of the object. isDisabled Gets the value that indicates whether the user can interact with the object. isMultiLine Retrieves the value indicating whether the content of the object contains one or more lines. isTextEdit Retrieves whether a TextRange object can be created using the object. LABEL label Sets or retrieves a value that you can use to implement your own label functionality for the object. LANG lang Sets or retrieves the language to use. LANGUAGE language Sets or retrieves the language in which the current script is written. lastChild Retrieves a reference to the last child in the childNodes collection of an object. nextSibling Retrieves a reference to the next child of the parent for the object. nodeName Retrieves the name of a particular type of node. nodeType Retrieves the type of the requested node. nodeValue Sets or retrieves the value of a node. offsetHeight Retrieves the height of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetLeft Retrieves the calculated left position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetParent Retrieves a reference to the container object that defines the offsetTop and offsetLeft properties of the object. offsetTop Retrieves the calculated top position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetWidth Retrieves the width of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. onOffBehavior Gets an object that indicates whether the specified Microsoft DirectAnimation behavior is running. ownerDocument Retrieves the document object associated with the node. parentElement Retrieves the parent object in the object hierarchy. parentNode Retrieves the parent object in the document hierarchy. parentTextEdit Retrieves the container object in the document hierarchy that can be used to create a TextRange containing the original object. previousSibling Retrieves a reference to the previous child of the parent for the object. readyState Retrieves the current state of the object. role   Sets or retrieves the role for this element. scopeName Gets the namespace defined for the element. scrollHeight Retrieves the scrolling height of the object. scrollLeft Sets or retrieves the distance between the left edge of the object and the leftmost portion of the content currently visible in the window. scrollTop Sets or retrieves the distance between the top of the object and the topmost portion of the content currently visible in the window. scrollWidth Retrieves the scrolling width of the object. SELECTED selected Sets or retrieves whether the option in the list box is the default item. tagName Retrieves the tag name of the object. tagUrn Sets or gets the Uniform Resource Name (URN) specified in the namespace declaration. text Sets or retrieves the text string specified by the option tag. uniqueID Retrieves an autogenerated, unique identifier for the object. VALUE value Sets or retrieves the value which is returned to the server when the form control is submitted. Behavior Description clientCaps Provides information about features supported by Internet Explorer, as well as a way for installing browser components on demand. download Downloads a file and notifies a specified callback function when the download is complete. homePage Contains information about a user's homepage. httpFolder Contains scripting features that enable browser navigation to a folder view. saveFavorite Enables the object to persist data in a favorite Web site. saveHistory Enables the object to persist data in the browser history. time Provides an active timeline for an HTML element. time2 Provides an active timeline for an HTML element or group of elements. userData Enables the object to persist data in user data. Collection Description attributes Retrieves a collection of attributes of the object. behaviorUrns Returns a collection of Uniform Resource Name (URN) strings identifying the behaviors attached to the element. childNodes Retrieves a collection of HTML Elements and TextNode objects that are direct descendants of the specified object. children Retrieves a collection of DHTML Objects that are direct descendants of the object. Event Description onlayoutcomplete Fires when the print or print preview layout process finishes filling the current LayoutRect object with content from the source document. onlosecapture Fires when the object loses the mouse capture. onpropertychange Fires when a property changes on the object. onreadystatechange Fires when the state of the object has changed. onselectstart Fires when the object is being selected. ontimeerror Fires whenever a time-specific error occurs, usually as a result of setting a property to an invalid value. Method Description addBehavior Attaches a behavior to the element. appendChild Appends an element as a child to the object. applyElement Makes the element either a child or parent of another element. attachEvent Binds the specified function to an event, so that the function gets called whenever the event fires on the object. clearAttributes Removes all attributes and values from the object. click Simulates a click by causing the onclick event to fire. cloneNode Copies a reference to the object from the document hierarchy. componentFromPoint Returns the component located at the specified coordinates via certain events. contains Checks whether the given element is contained within the object. detachEvent Unbinds the specified function from the event, so that the function stops receiving notifications when the event fires. dragDrop Initiates a drag event. fireEvent Fires a specified event on the object. getAdjacentText Returns the adjacent text string. getAttribute   Retrieves the value of the specified attribute. getAttribute Retrieves the value of the specified attribute. getAttributeNode Gets an attribute object referenced by the attribute.name property. getBoundingClientRect Retrieves an object that specifies the bounds of a collection of TextRectangle objects. getClientRects Retrieves a collection of rectangles that describes the layout of the contents of an object or range within the client. Each rectangle describes a single line. getExpression Retrieves the expression for the given property. hasAttribute   Determines whether an attribute with the specified name exists. hasChildNodes Returns a value that indicates whether the object has children. insertAdjacentElement Inserts an element at the specified location. insertAdjacentHTML Inserts the given HTML text into the element at the location. insertAdjacentText Inserts the given text into the element at the specified location. insertBefore Inserts an element into the document hierarchy as a child node of a parent object. mergeAttributes Copies all read/write attributes to the specified element. normalize Merges adjacent TextNode objects to produce a normalized document object model. releaseCapture Removes mouse capture from the object in the current document. removeAttribute   Removes the given attribute from the object. removeAttribute Removes the given attribute from the object. removeAttributeNode Removes an attribute object from the object. removeBehavior Detaches a behavior from the element. removeChild Removes a child node from the object. removeExpression Removes the expression from the specified property. removeNode Removes the object from the document hierarchy. replaceAdjacentText Replaces the text adjacent to the element. replaceChild Replaces an existing child element with a new child element. replaceNode Replaces the object with another element. setAttribute   Sets the value of the specified attribute. setAttribute Sets the value of the specified attribute. setAttributeNode Sets an attribute object node as part of the object. setCapture Sets the mouse capture to the object that belongs to the current document. setExpression Sets an expression for the specified object. swapNode Exchanges the location of two objects in the document hierarchy. Object Description currentStyle Represents the cascaded format and style of the object as specified by global style sheets, inline styles, and HTML attributes. runtimeStyle Represents the cascaded format and style of the object that overrides the format and style specified in global style sheets, inline styles, and HTML attributes. style Represents the current settings of all possible inline styles for a given element. Style attribute Style property Description background-attachment backgroundAttachment Sets or retrieves how the background image is attached to the object within the document. background-color backgroundColor Sets or retrieves the color behind the content of the object. background-position-x backgroundPositionX Sets or retrieves the x-coordinate of the backgroundPosition property. background-position-y backgroundPositionY Sets or retrieves the y-coordinate of the backgroundPosition property. behavior behavior Sets or retrieves the location of the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behavior. clear clear Sets or retrieves whether the object allows floating objects on its left side, right side, or both, so that the next text displays past the floating objects. color color Sets or retrieves the color of the text of the object. direction direction Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object. hasLayout Gets a value that indicates whether the object has layout. height height Sets or retrieves the height of the object. layout-flow layoutFlow Sets or retrieves the direction and flow of the content in the object. layout-grid layoutGrid Sets or retrieves the composite document grid properties that specify the layout of text characters. layout-grid-mode layoutGridMode Sets or retrieves whether the text layout grid uses two dimensions. max-height maxHeight Sets or retrieves the maximum height for an element. max-width maxWidth Sets or retrieves the maximum width for an element. min-height minHeight Sets or retrieves the minimum height for an element. min-width minWidth Sets or retrieves the minimum width for an element. pixelBottom Sets or retrieves the bottom position of the object. pixelHeight Sets or retrieves the height of the object. pixelLeft Sets or retrieves the left position of the object. pixelRight Sets or retrieves the right position of the object. pixelTop Sets or retrieves the top position of the object. pixelWidth Sets or retrieves the width of the object. posBottom Sets or retrieves the bottom position of the object in the units specified by the bottom attribute. posHeight Sets or retrieves the height of the object in the units specified by the height attribute. posLeft Sets or retrieves the left position of the object in the units specified by the left attribute. posRight Sets or retrieves the right position of the object in the units specified by the right attribute. posTop Sets or retrieves the top position of the object in the units specified by the top attribute. posWidth Sets or retrieves the width of the object in the units specified by the width attribute. text-autospace textAutospace Sets or retrieves the autospacing and narrow space width adjustment of text. text-underline-position textUnderlinePosition Sets or retrieves the position of the underline decoration that is set through the textDecoration property of the object. unicode-bidi unicodeBidi Sets or retrieves the level of embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm. width width Sets or retrieves the width of the object. word-wrap wordWrap Sets or retrieves whether to break words when the content exceeds the boundaries of its container. writing-mode writingMode Sets or retrieves the direction and flow of the content in the object. zoom zoom Sets or retrieves the magnification scale of the object.

Remarks

As of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and later, the OPTION elements are part of the all collection. For earlier versions, you can gain access to these elements by applying the options collection to the SELECT element.

You can add OPTION elements only to a SELECT element that is located in the same window where the OPTION elements are created.

Except for background-color and color, style settings applied through the style object for the option element are ignored. In addition, style settings applied directly to individual options override those applied to the containing SELECT element as a whole.

This element is a block element.

This element does not require a closing tag.

Examples

This example uses the OPTION element to create individual items in a drop-down list box.

<SELECT ID="oCars" SIZE="1" >
<OPTION VALUE="1">BMW
<OPTION VALUE="2">PORSCHE
<OPTION VALUE="3" SELECTED>MERCEDES
</SELECT>
<TEXTAREA ID="oData"></TEXTAREA>

This example uses the options collection to append the selected item of the list box in a text area.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JScript">
function fnChange(){
   oData.value+=oCars.options[oCars.selectedIndex].text + "\n";
}
</SCRIPT>

Standards Information

This object is defined in HTML 3.2 .

See Also

multiple