How to Add / Remove Options of a Selection Box Dynamically

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to dynamically add options to and remove options from a select element in JavaScript.

The HTMLSelectElement type represents the <select> element. It has the add() method that dynamically adds an option to the <select> element and the remove() method that removes an option from the <select> element:

add(option,existingOption) adds a new <option> element to the <select> before an existing option.
remove(index) removes an option specified by the index from a <select>.

Adding options

To add an option dynamically to a <select> element, you use these steps:

First, create a new option.
Second, add the option to the select element.

There are multiple ways to create an option dynamically and add it to a <select> in JavaScript.

1) Using the Option constructor and add() method

First, use the Option constructor to create a new option with the specified option text and value:

let newOption = new Option('Option Text','Option Value');Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Then, call the add() method of the HTMLSelectElement element:

const select = document.querySelector('select'); 
select.add(newOption,undefined);Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The add() method accepts two arguments. The first argument is the new option and the second one is an existing option.

In this example, we pass undefined in the second argument, the method add() method will add the new option to the end of the options list.

2) Using the DOM methods

First, construct a new option using DOM methods:

// create option using DOM
const newOption = document.createElement('option');
const optionText = document.createTextNode('Option Text');
// set option text
newOption.appendChild(optionText);
// and option value
newOption.setAttribute('value','Option Value');Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Second, add the new option to the select element using the appendChild() method:

const select = document.querySelector('select'); 
select.appendChild(newOption);Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Removing Options

There are also multiple ways to dynamically remove options from a select element.

The first way is to use the remove() method of the HTMLSelectElement type. The following illustrates how to remove the first option:

select.remove(0);Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The second way to remove an option is to reference the option by its index using the options collection and set its value to null:

select.options[0] = null;Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The third way is to use the removeChild() method and remove a specified option. The following code removes the first element of a the selectBox:

// remove the first element:
select.removeChild(selectBox.options[0]);Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

To remove all options of a select element, you use the following code:

function removeAll(select) {
    while (select.options.length > 0) {
        select.remove(0);
    }
}Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

When you remove the first option, the select element moves another option as the first option. The removeAll() function repeatedly removes the first option in the select element, therefore, it removes all the options.

Putting it all together

We’ll build a application that allows users to add a new option from the value of an input text and remove one or more selected options.

Here’s the project’s structure:

├── css
|  └── style.css
├── js
|  └── app.js
└── index.htmlCode language: JavaScript (javascript)

The index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>JavaScript Selected Value</title>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <link href="css/style.css" rel="stylesheet">
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="container">
            <form>
                <label for="framework">Framework:</label>
                <input type="text" id="framework" placeholder="Enter a framework" autocomplete="off">

                <button id="btnAdd">Add</button>

                <label for="list">Framework List:</label>
                <select id="list" name="list" multiple>

                </select>
                <button id="btnRemove">Remove Selected Framework</button>
            </form>
        </div>
        <script src="js/app.js"></script>
    </body>

</html>Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

js/app.js

const btnAdd = document.querySelector('#btnAdd');
const btnRemove = document.querySelector('#btnRemove');
const listbox = document.querySelector('#list');
const framework = document.querySelector('#framework');

btnAdd.onclick = (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();

  // validate the option
  if (framework.value == '') {
    alert('Please enter the name.');
    return;
  }
  // create a new option
  const option = new Option(framework.value, framework.value);
  // add it to the list
  listbox.add(option, undefined);

  // reset the value of the input
  framework.value = '';
  framework.focus();
};

// remove selected option
btnRemove.onclick = (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();

  // save the selected options
  let selected = [];

  for (let i = 0; i < listbox.options.length; i++) {
    selected[i] = listbox.options[i].selected;
  }

  // remove all selected option
  let index = listbox.options.length;
  while (index--) {
    if (selected[index]) {
      listbox.remove(index);
    }
  }
};Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The style can be found here.

How it works:

First, use the querySelector() method to select elements including the input text, button, and selection box:

const btnAdd = document.querySelector('#btnAdd');
const btnRemove = document.querySelector('#btnRemove');
const listbox = document.querySelector('#list');
const framework = document.querySelector('#framework');Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Second, attach the click event listener to the btnAdd button.

If the value of the input text is blank, we show an alert to inform the users that the name is required. Otherwise, we create a new option and add it to the selection box. After adding the option, we reset the entered text of the input text and set the focus to it.

btnAdd.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();

  // validate the option
  if (framework.value.trim() === '') {
    alert('Please enter the name.');
    return;
  }
  // create a new option
  const option = new Option(framework.value, framework.value);

  // add it to the list
  listbox.add(option, undefined);

  // reset the value of the input
  framework.value = '';
  framework.focus();
});Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Third, register a click event listener to the btnRemove button. In the event listener, we save the selected options in an array and remove each of them.

btnRemove.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();

  // save the selected options
  let selected = [];

  for (let i = 0; i < listbox.options.length; i++) {
    selected[i] = listbox.options[i].selected;
  }

  // remove all selected option
  let index = listbox.options.length;
  while (index--) {
    if (selected[index]) {
      listbox.remove(index);
    }
  }
});Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Summary

JavaScript uses the HTMLSelectElement type to represent the <select> element.
Use the add() method of the HTMLSelectElement to add an option to the <select> element.
Use the remove() method of the HTMLSelectElement to remove an option from the <select> element.

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