[Chapter 21] Reference: Option.selected
Author: David Flanagan
Date: Fri Aug 29 11:18:44 1997

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| Chapter 21 JavaScript Reference |

# Option.selected Property

## Name

Option.selected Property---whether the option is selected

## Availability

Navigator 2.0, Internet Explorer 3.0

## Synopsis

    option.selected

## Description

The `selected` property is a read/write Boolean value that specifies whether a Option object within a Select object is currently selected. You can use this property to test whether a given option is selected. You can also use it to select (by setting it to `true`) or deselect (by setting it to `false`) a given option. Note that when you select or deselect an option in this way the `Select.onchange()` event handler is not invoked.

## Usage

To determine the selected options in a Select object, you can loop through the `Select.options[]` array testing the `selected` property of each item. When multiple selections are not allowed (i.e., when the `MULTIPLE` attribute does not appear in the `<SELECT>` tag), however, it is much easier to simply check use the `selectedIndex` property of the Select object.

## See Also

"Option", "Select", "Select.selectedIndex"

Option.index |  | Option.text