jquery populate select list

Question

I have this in my htm file

    <select id="SelItem">

    </select>

Within my javascript file I have a section for jquery I have the following

     var itemval= '<option value="OT">OT</option>';

     $("#SelItem").html(itemval);

Wouldn't the following populate my drop down with OT? It does not populate anything in the drop down

Answer 1

You might want to consider using append:

//Creates the item
var itemval= '<option value="OT">OT</option>';

//Appends it within your select element
$("#SelItem").append(itemval);​

Example

Update

As js1568 pointed out - the problem is most likely stemming from the page not being loaded when the JS / jQuery code is being executed. You should be able to fix this with the following:

$(document).ready(function()
{
    //Creates the item
    var itemval= '<option value="OT">OT</option>';

    //Appends it within your select element
    $("#SelItem").append(itemval);​
});

Answer 2

You need to wait until the page has loaded before running this code. Try wrapping your code inside $(document).ready() function.

Introducing $(document).ready()