Is there a SelectedIndex for an HTML5 DataList?

Question

You can pick the current option of any select element:

mySelect.options[mySelect.selectedIndex]

Can I do the same with a DataList? Something like this:

<input id = "input" list = "datalist" type = "text" />

<datalist id = "datalist">
    <option value = "No. 1"></option>
    <option value = "No. 2"></option>
    <option value = "No. 3"></option>
</datalist>

<script>
    var datalist = document.getElementById ("datalist");
    var input = document.getElementById ("input");

    input.addEventListener ("keyup", function (event) {
        if (event.which === 13) {
            alert (datalist.options[datalist.selectedIndex]); // Example
        }
    }, false);
</script>

Answer 1

Lets say you have data attributes in the above example like this,

<input list="browsers" name="browser" value="Internet Explorer">
<datalist id="browsers">
    <option value="Internet Explorer" data-company="Microsoft">
    <option value="Firefox" data-company="Mozilla">
    <option value="Chrome" data-company="Google/Alphabet">
    <option value="Opera" data-company="Opera">
    <option value="Safari" data-company="Apple">
</datalist>

and you want to obtain the data-company attribute of the selected item,

using the loop above

for (var i=0;i<datalist_id.options.length;i++) {
    if (datalist_id.options[i].value == input_id.value) {
        // obtains the data-company attrbute
        console.log(datalist_id.options[i].getAttribute("data-company");
        alert(datalist_id.options[i].innerText);
        break;
    }
}

Answer 2

No, the datalist element is for providing autocomplete to inputs. It is a source of data, is hidden from the user, and multiple inputs may link to it. Therefore it doesn't make sense to have a selectedIndex.

Instead, you should simply check the .value of the input:

var datalist = document.getElementById ("datalist");
var input = document.getElementById ("input");

input.addEventListener ("keyup", function (event) {
    if (event.which === 13) {
        alert(input.value);
    }
}, false);