populate select boxes from json string using jquery

Question

I have a list of select boxes with incremental numbers to identify then e.g.

<select id="my-select-0">
  <option value="1">first option</option>
  <option value="2">first option</option>
< option value="3">first option</option>
</select>
<select id="my-select-1">
  <option value="1">first option</option>
  <option value="2">first option</option>
  <option value="3">first option</option>
</select>
<select id="my-select-2">
  <option value="1">first option</option>
  <option value="2">first option</option>
  <option value="3">first option</option>
</select>

I have a json string which I want to use to pre populate these selects e.g.

json = "[{'my-select': 1}, 
         {'my-select': 3}]";

in the example above my-select-0 would be set to 1 and my-select-1 is set to 3.

How would I go about doing this in JQuery?

Thanks

Do you control this format? Currently it's not valid JSON, so you won't be able to use any of the built-in functions to parse it. Is it fetched via AJAX, or just rendered directly in the page? — Nick Craver
– Nick Craver, Commented Jun 3, 2010 at 13:26
I control the JSON string. I'm new to JSON so can you tell me what the correct format should be? Thanks — John
– John, Commented Jun 3, 2010 at 14:18

Nick Craver · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-04 11:17:01Z

3

I'm not sure exactly what you're after, but if you change the JSON to be valid (double quotes) you can do it using $.parseJSON() and looping through, like this:

var json = '[{"my-select": 1}, {"my-select": 3}]';

var selects = $("[id^=my-select]"); //a class maybe? not sure of your options
$.each($.parseJSON(json), function(i, v) {
    selects.eq(i).val(v['my-select']);
});

You can see a working demo here

Update: Since you control how this is rendered in the page just remove the initial quotes it's wrapped in, like this:

var json = [{'my-select': 1}, {'my-select': 3}];
var selects = $("[id^=my-select]");
$.each(json, function(i, v) {
    selects.eq(i).val(v['my-select']);
});

You can see it working here, JSON is exactly what it's name says, object notation...so just use it that way, don't make it a string, just output/declare it directly as a javascript object...in this case it's an array you can loop through, and it's of course faster without all that extra work.

edited Jun 4, 2010 at 11:17

answered Jun 3, 2010 at 13:31

Nick Craver

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4 Comments

John Over a year ago

thanks this is exactly what I want. However I am using jquery 1.3.0 which doesn't have the parseJSON function. Is your solution possible using 1.3.0? Thanks

Nick Craver Over a year ago

@John - How are you getting the JSON string? is it rendered into the page, or fetched via AJAX?

John Over a year ago

rendered into the page just as you have it above i.e. json = ??? The string itself is dynamically created using server side scripting.

Nick Craver Over a year ago

@John - I updated the answer given the new info, the approach is much simpler and will work in jQuery 1.3.0 as well, let me know if you have any trouble :)

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