How to convert all items (options) of a multi select dropdown into an array using jquery

Question

I am trying to convert a multiple select dropDown values (all options) into an array using jquery.

<select size="10" style="width: 330px;" name="itemList"
        id="selectedItemLists" multiple="multiple">
    <option value="1">value1</option>
    <option value="2">value2</option>
    <option value="3">value3</option>
    <option value="4">value4</option>
</select>

Now using jquery how to create an array like array[0]=value1,array[1]=value2...

Please help me in this.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Possibly something like:

var options = new Array();
$('#selectedItemLists > option:selected').each(
     function(i){
         options[i] = $(this).val();
     });

JS Fiddle demo.

---

Edited in response to @mellamokb's comment, to amend the jQuery to use text() instead of val():

var options = new Array();
$('#selectedItemLists > option:selected').each(
     function(i){
         options[i] = $(this).text();
     });

JS Fiddle demo.

References:

• :selected selector.
• each().
• val().
• text().

Answer 2

You can use .map() to accomplish this as well.

var i = $.map($("#selectedItemLists option:selected"), function(elem){
    return $(elem).text();
});

Example on jsfiddle