Behavior of val() for multiple select in jQuery changed?

Question

So everywhere I looked everybody says that to output values of selected options in a multiple select element one should use something like the following $(\'#selid :se

Answer 1

The val function gets the value of the first element in the set of matched elements. To get the value of multiple selected items, when using the :selected selector, you need to loop through the set, as you mention in your question.

For more information, read the jQuery API for val().

Answer 2

"in such case val() will return an array of values. Well, I can't replicate this behaviour."

You never need to use :selected to get the value of a <select>. This is sufficient:

$('#selid').val()

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/mattball/WZRmD/