Get selected value of a dropdown's item using jQuery

Question

How can I get the selected value of a dropdown box using jQuery?
I tried using

var value = $(\'#dropDownId\').val();

and

Answer 1

I know this is a terribly old post and I should probably be flogged for this pitiful resurrection, but I thought I would share a couple of VERY helpful little JS snippets that I use throughout every application in my arsenal...

If typing out:

$("#selector option:selected").val() // or
$("#selector option:selected").text()

is getting old, try adding these little crumpets to your global *.js file:

function soval(a) {
    return $('option:selected', a).val();
}
function sotext(a) {
    return $('option:selected', a).text();
}

and just write soval("#selector"); or sotext("#selector"); instead! Get even fancier by combining the two and returning an object containing both the value and the text!

function so(a) {
    my.value = $('option:selected', a).val();
    my.text  = $('option:selected', a).text();
    return my;
}

It saves me a ton of precious time, especially on form-heavy applications!