set dropdown value by text using jquery [duplicate]

Question

I have a dropdown as:

<select id="HowYouKnow" >   <option value="1">FRIEND</option>   <option value="2">GOOGLE</option>   <option value="3">AGENT</option></select> 

In the above dropdown i know the text of the dropdown. How can set the value of the dropdown in document.ready with the text using jquery?

Answer 1

This is a method that works based on the text of the option, not the index. Just tested.

var theText = "GOOGLE"; $("#HowYouKnow option:contains(" + theText + ")").attr('selected', 'selected'); 

Or, if there are similar values (thanks shanabus):

$("#HowYouKnow option").each(function() {   if($(this).text() == theText) {     $(this).attr('selected', 'selected');               }                         });