--- title: HTMLSelectElement.selectedOptions slug: Web/API/HTMLSelectElement/selectedOptions translation_of: Web/API/HTMLSelectElement/selectedOptions ---

The read-only {{domxref("HTMLSelectElement")}} property selectedOptions contains a list of the {{HTMLElement("option")}} elements contained within the {{HTMLElement("select")}} element that are currently selected. The list of selected options is an {{domxref("HTMLCollection")}} object with one entry per currently selected option.

An option is considered selected if it has an {{domxref("HTMLOptionElement.selected")}} attribute.

Syntax

var selectedCollection = HTMLSelectElement.selectedOptions;

Value

An {{domxref("HTMLCollection")}} which lists every currently selected {{domxref("HTMLOptionElement")}} which is either a child of the {{domxref("HTMLSelectElement")}} or of an {{domxref("HTMLOptGroupElement")}} within the <select> element.

In other words, any option contained within the <select> element may be part of the results, but option groups are not included in the list.

If no options are currently selected, the collection is empty and returns a {{domxref("HTMLCollection.length", "length")}} of 0.

Example

In this example, a {{HTMLElement("select")}} element with a number of options is used to let the user order various food items.

HTML

The HTML that creates the selection box and the {{HTMLElement("option")}} elements representing each of the food choices looks like this:

<label for="foods">What do you want to eat?</label><br>
<select id="foods" name="foods" size="7" multiple>
  <option value="1">Burrito</option>
  <option value="2">Cheeseburger</option>
  <option value="3">Double Bacon Burger Supreme</option>
  <option value="4">Pepperoni Pizza</option>
  <option value="5">Taco</option>
</select>
<br>
<button name="order" id="order">
  Order Now
</button>
<p id="output">
</p>

The <select> element is set to allow multiple items to be selected, and it is 7 rows tall. Note also the {{HTMLElement("button")}}, whose role it is to trigger fetching the {{domxref("HTMLCollection")}} of selected elements using the selected property.

JavaScript

The JavaScript code that establishes the event handler for the button, as well as the event handler itself, looks like this:

let orderButton = document.getElementById("order");
let itemList = document.getElementById("foods");
let outputBox = document.getElementById("output");

orderButton.addEventListener("click", function() {
  let collection = itemList.selectedOptions;
  let output = "";

  for (let i=0; i<collection.length; i++) {
    if (output === "") {
      output = "Your order for the following items has been placed: ";
    }
    output += collection[i].label;

    if (i === (collection.length - 2) && (collection.length < 3)) {
      output +=  " and ";
    } else if (i < (collection.length - 2)) {
      output += ", ";
    } else if (i === (collection.length - 2)) {
      output += ", and ";
    }
  }

  if (output === "") {
    output = "You didn't order anything!";
  }

  outputBox.innerHTML = output;
}, false);

This script sets up a {{event("click")}} event listener on the "Order Now" button. When clicked, the event handler fetches the list of selected options using selectedOptions, then iterates over the options in the list. A string is constructed to list the ordered items, with logic to build the list using proper English grammar rules (including a {{interwiki("wikipedia", "serial comma")}}).

Result

The resulting content looks like this in action:

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
{{SpecName('HTML WHATWG', "form-elements.html#dom-select-selectedoptions", "HTMLSelectElement.selectedOptions")}}	{{Spec2('HTML WHATWG')}}	No change from {{SpecName('HTML5 W3C')}}
{{SpecName('HTML5 W3C', "forms.html#dom-select-selectedoptions", "HTMLSelectElement.selectedOptions")}}	{{Spec2('HTML5 W3C')}}	Initial definition.