jQuery v1.10+ val() creates empty option if none exists

Question

Recently updated to jQuery v1.12 and found that it sets <select> elements to a nonexistant option if one doesn't exist, instead of gracefully falling back to unsetting the value as it did previously.

Here is the behavior I'm used to (pre v1.10):

$("button").click(function() {
  $("select").val('');
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<select>
  <option value="1">something 1</option>
  <option value="2" selected="selected">something 2</option>
</select>
<button>reset</button>

And here is how v1.10+ behaves:

$("button").click(function() {
  $("select").val('');
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<select>
  <option value="1">something 1</option>
  <option value="2" selected="selected">something 2</option>
</select>
<button>reset</button>

Is this a bug or is this the intended behavior?

I read through the changelog and don't see any specific mention of this change but finding it rather disruptive.

(Please note: I am not looking for workarounds and as noted in the comments, I've already changed my app to use $('select').prop("selectedIndex", 0).change();)

Answer 1

jQuery automatically setting it to the first or default option was a bug which was fixed post jQuery 1.10+

See this link : https://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/13514