jQuery .val() for select element returns text

Question

Does jQuery .val() for select elements returns only text and not numbers? You know there is a problem when you need to make a value comparison.

I know how to solve this with parseInt() or just comparing with string or by not using jQuery at all but what I don't know if this is a bug or the way jQuery just works.

From jQuery documentation > Value: Type: String or Number or Array A string of text, a number, or an array of strings corresponding to the value of each matched element to set as selected/checked.

.val() Returns: String or Number or Array

// Put any number here 0 is the default selected value
var comparison_value = 0;

$('button').click(function () {

    $('div#typeof').text(typeof ($('select').val()));

    if ($('select').val() === comparison_value) {
        $('div#comparison').text('You just passed a test');
    } else {
        $('div#comparison').text('You just failed a test');
    }
})

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<select>
    <option value="0" selected>Select Something</option>
    <option value="1">One</option>
    <option value="2">Two</option>
</select>
<button>Gimme back my selection</button>
<div id='typeof'></div>
<div id='comparison'></div>

Answer 1

You get what you've set in the value attribute of the select element, the value, which is "1" or "2", but as a string, input values are never anything else than strings (even if you may have accessors like valueAsNumber in HTML5).

If you want to get it as a number, use

var selectedValue = +$('select').val();

If you want the index of the selected option, use

var selectedIndex = $('select')[0].selectedIndex;

Now, regarding the excerpt of the documentation you cite: it's about setting the value. If you pass a number, it will be converted to a string (and you'll get a string if you call .val() to get the value).