How to read the selected item's value of a html dropdown menu in a javascript function

Question

I have a form in html that contains a drop down menu like so

<form name= "gadget_selector">
    <select name= "gadget">
        <option value = 0> Something </option>
        <option value = 1> Something else </option>
        //etc..
    </select> 
</form> 

And I want to access the value of the selected option in a javascript function like so

function someFunction(){

    //var option = value of selected menu option
}

How would I do this?

Answer 1

var option = document.getElementById('gadget').value;

Set gadget as the id for the select as well, like this:

<select id="gadget" name="gadget">
        <option value = 0> Something </option>
        <option value = 1> Something else </option>
        //etc..
    </select>