Dynamically get changed select value

Question

I need to get the value of the selected option (when changed) in a select list and change the text in a span next to the select list. The problem is I don't know the id of the select list. There are a lot of different select lists on the page (5-25+) and they are all created dynamically, and so I can't have the id specified in the .change(). Here is what I have:

JavaScript:

$("select").change(function () {
   var str = "";
   str = $("select option:selected").text();

   $(".out").text(str);
}).trigger('change');

(Of course this doesn't work, puts all of the select values in each span.)

HTML:

<select name="animal[]">
    <option value="dog">dog</option>
    <option value="cat">cat</option>
    <option value="bird">bird</option>
    <option value="snake">snake</option>
</select>
<span class="out"></span>

What am I missing?

Answer 1

Try something like this:

$("select").change(function () {
   var txt = $(this).val();
   $(this).next('span.out').text(txt);
}).trigger('change');​

Answer 2

Try this:

$("select").each(function(){

    var select = $(this),
        out = select.next();

    select.change(function () {
        out.text(select.val());
    });

}).trigger('change');