How do I programmatically set the value of a select box element using JavaScript?

Question

I have the following HTML element:

Annual Leave&l

Answer 1

I compared the different methods:

Comparison of the different ways on how to set a value of a select with JS or jQuery

code:

$(function() {
    var oldT = new Date().getTime();
     var element = document.getElementById('myId');
    element.value = 4;
    console.error(new Date().getTime() - oldT);

    oldT = new Date().getTime();
    $("#myId option").filter(function() {
        return $(this).attr('value') == 4;
    }).attr('selected', true);
    console.error(new Date().getTime() - oldT);

    oldT = new Date().getTime();
    $("#myId").val("4");
    console.error(new Date().getTime() - oldT);
});

Output on a select with ~4000 elements:

• 1 ms
• 58 ms
• 612 ms

With Firefox 10. Note: The only reason I did this test, was because jQuery performed super poorly on our list with ~2000 entries (they had longer texts between the options). We had roughly 2 s delay after a val()

Note as well: I am setting value depending on the real value, not the text value.