SELECTED Attribute | selected Property

Sets or retrieves whether the option in the list box is the default item.

Syntax

HTML <OPTION SELECTED ... >
Scripting OPTION.selected [ = bSelected ]

Possible Values

bSelected Boolean that specifies or receives one of the following values.
false Default. Item is not selected as the default.
true Item is selected as the default.
The property is read/write. The property has a default value of false.
Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

If the property is not set, the first item is selected by default.
The property determines whether a value is submitted with the form. If the value of the control matches the default value, the control's value is not submitted. The value is submitted only when the control's value does not match the default value.
To select an item in HTML, it is not necessary to set the value of the SELECTED attribute to true. The mere presence of the SELECTED attribute set its value to true.

Standards Information

This property is defined in HTML 3.2 and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

Applies To

OPTION