How to get the selected radio button’s value?

Question

I’m having some strange problem with my JS program. I had this working properly but for some reason it’s no longer working. I just want to find the value of the radio button (which one is selected) and return it to a variable. For some reason it keeps returning undefined.

Here is my code:

function findSelection(field) {
    var test = 'document.theForm.' + field;
    var sizes = test;

    alert(sizes);
        for (i=0; i < sizes.length; i++) {
            if (sizes[i].checked==true) {
            alert(sizes[i].value + ' you got a value');     
            return sizes[i].value;
        }
    }
}

submitForm:

function submitForm() {

    var genderS =  findSelection("genderS");
    alert(genderS);
}

HTML:

<form action="#n" name="theForm">

    <label for="gender">Gender: </label>
    <input type="radio" name="genderS" value="1" checked> Male
    <input type="radio" name="genderS" value="0" > Female<br><br>
    <a href="javascript: submitForm()">Search</A>
</form>

Answer 1

 document.querySelector('input[name=genderS]:checked').value

Answer 2

document.forms.your-form-name.elements.radio-button-name.value

Answer 3

Since jQuery 1.8, the correct syntax for the query is

$('input[name="genderS"]:checked').val();

Not $('input[@name="genderS"]:checked').val(); anymore, which was working in jQuery 1.7 (with the @).

Answer 4

This is pure JavaScript, based on the answer by @Fontas but with safety code to return an empty string (and avoid a TypeError) if there isn't a selected radio button:

var genderSRadio = document.querySelector("input[name=genderS]:checked");
var genderSValue = genderSRadio ? genderSRadio.value : "";

The code breaks down like this:

• Line 1: get a reference to the control that (a) is an <input> type, (b) has a name attribute of genderS, and (c) is checked.
• Line 2: If there is such a control, return its value. If there isn't, return an empty string. The genderSRadio variable is truthy if Line 1 finds the control and null/falsey if it doesn't.

For JQuery, use @jbabey's answer, and note that if there isn't a selected radio button it will return undefined.

Answer 5

lets suppose you need to place different rows of radio buttons in a form, each with separate attribute names ('option1','option2' etc) but the same class name. Perhaps you need them in multiple rows where they will each submit a value based on a scale of 1 to 5 pertaining to a question. you can write your javascript like so:

<script type="text/javascript">

    var ratings = document.getElementsByClassName('ratings'); // we access all our radio buttons elements by class name     
    var radios="";

    var i;
    for(i=0;i<ratings.length;i++){
        ratings[i].onclick=function(){
            var result = 0;
            radios = document.querySelectorAll("input[class=ratings]:checked");
            for(j=0;j<radios.length;j++){
                result =  result + + radios[j].value;
            }
            console.log(result);
            document.getElementById('overall-average-rating').innerHTML = result; // this row displays your total rating
        }
    }
</script>

I would also insert the final output into a hidden form element to be submitted together with the form.

Answer 6

In case someone was looking for an answer and landed here like me, from Chrome 34 and Firefox 33 you can do the following:

var form = document.theForm;
var radios = form.elements['genderS'];
alert(radios.value);

or simpler:

alert(document.theForm.genderS.value);

refrence: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/RadioNodeList/value