To set the default selected <option> in the HTML form, use the selected property. The specific method is to add the selected attribute to the target <option> tag. The browser will automatically recognize and apply the status when it loads. For example, add selected in the "Banana" option. Banana is displayed by default on the page. Common uses include default values for the initial loading of the page, echoing data when editing by the user, and dynamic form preset options. Notes include: selected is a Boolean property without assignment; only the first one takes effect when multiple selected properties are selected; avoid mixing with selectedIndex or value of JavaScript. If you need to set it dynamically, you can modify the value or selectedIndex attribute of the select through JS by default, but it will not change the selected attribute in the HTML source code. Server-side rendering can directly output HTML with selected, while front-end rendering is recommended to use JS control.
In HTML forms, if you want a drop-down option ( <option></option>
) to be selected by default, you can use the selected
property. Although this property is simple, it is very practical in actual development, especially when form initialization or user backfill data.

How to set the default selected option
Just add the selected
attribute to the <option></option>
tag you want to select by default. For example:
<select> <option value="apple">Apple</option> <option value="banana" selected>Banana</option> <option value="orange">Orange</option> </select>
In this example, "Banana" will be displayed in the drop-down box as the default selection. When the browser loads the page, this attribute will be automatically recognized and the corresponding status will be applied.

Use scenarios and precautions
Common uses:
- Set the default value when the page is loaded for the first time.
- The selected content is echoed when the user edits the existing data.
- Preset certain options in dynamically generated forms.
Things to note:

-
selected
is a Boolean property, and there is no need to assign values. If written, it means "selected". - If multiple
<option>
haveselected
, only the first one will be selected. - Do not mix with JavaScript
selectedIndex
orvalue
settings, as it may conflict.
For example, if you wrote this:
<option value="a" selected>Option A</option> <option value="b" selected>Option B</option>
Then "Option A" will be selected by default, and "B" selected
will be ignored.
You can use JS to set the default value dynamically
Sometimes you may not want to write HTML directly, but instead want to dynamically decide which option is selected based on the conditions. At this time, you can use JavaScript to operate.
For example, by setting value
attribute of the select
element:
document.querySelector('select').value = 'banana';
Or set selectedIndex
:
document.querySelector('select').selectedIndex = 1;
Both methods can be dynamically selected by default. But note that this will not modify the selected
attribute in HTML, and will only affect the results of the current page rendering.
Let's summarize
- If you want to select an item by default, adding
selected
is the most direct way. - Multiple
selected
only recognize the first one. - For dynamic control, it is more flexible to use JS to change
value
orselectedIndex
. - When rendering on the server, you can directly output HTML with
selected
, while for front-end rendering, JS control is considered.
Basically, that's not complicated but it's easy to ignore details, especially when the front and back ends cooperate.
The above is the detailed content of HTML `option` `selected` Attribute for Default Selection. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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