Find the maximum value in a drop-down list using jQuery?

Question

I have a drop-down list with numerical values:

<select name="a">
   <option value="1">asdsadas</option>
   <option value="1">wqecsdc</option>
   <option value="10">nmnmbn</option>
   <option value="16">assadsa</option>
   <option value="12">uuyuyuy</option>
   <option value="60">xzXz</option>
   <option value="55">vbbnbnm</option>
   <option value="13">eerrt</option>
</select>

I need to find the highest numerical value within this list. (In this case, it's 60.)

I was thinking of looping using .each, but is there a shorter way?

Answer 1

This works fine for me, pretty straight forward:

$('select option:last').val()

edit: misunderstood the question but might become handy for others, in most cases you have the options in the select element ordered desc or asc.

Answer 2

Something like this should work:

function findMaxValue(element) {
    var maxValue = undefined;
    $('option', element).each(function() {
        var val = $(this).attr('value');
        val = parseInt(val, 10);
        if (maxValue === undefined || maxValue < val) {
            maxValue = val;
        }
    });
    return maxValue;
}

alert(findMaxValue($('select[name=a]')));