Programming |  HTML Programming |  HTML Forms |  Selection List

List boxes let you pick the item you want out of a multiple-choice box. The listbox itself is created with the tag, and the items inside it are created by one or more tags. You can have any number of tags in a list. The list is terminated with a tag.

The list can appear with many items showing at once, or it can appear in a drop-down box -- normally you see one item at a time, but click to see more. The markup for the two styles is identical, except for the optional SIZE attribute. Leave off SIZE to make a drop-down box; use SIZE to make a list box of the size you wish.

    <SELECT NAME="list" SIZE="3">
    <OPTION>This is item 1
    <OPTION>This is item 2
    <OPTION>This is item 3
    </SELECT>

Use the selectedIndex property to test which option item is selected in the list:

    function test_selection(form) {
        alert (form.list.selectedIndex);
    }

If you want the text of the selected list item instead of the index, use this:

    function testSelect (form) {
        Item = form.list.selectedIndex;
        Result = form.list.options[Item].text;
        alert (Result);
    }