jQuery prevent change for select

Question

I want to prevent a select box from being changed if a certain condition applies. Doing this doesn't seem to work:

$('#my_select').bind('change', function(ev) {
  if(my_condition)
  {
    ev.preventDefault();
    return false;
  }
});

I'm guessing this is because by this point the selected option has already changed.

What are other ways of doing this?

Answer 1

Try this:

http://jsfiddle.net/qk2Pc/

var my_condition = true;
var lastSel = $("#my_select option:selected");

$("#my_select").change(function(){
  if(my_condition)
  {
    lastSel.prop("selected", true);
  }
});

$("#my_select").click(function(){
    lastSel = $("#my_select option:selected");
});

Answer 2

You can do this without jquery...

<select onchange="event.target.selectedIndex = 0">
...
</select>

or you can do a function to check your condition

<select onchange="check(event)">
...
</select>

<script>
function check(e){
    if (my_condition){
        event.target.selectedIndex = 0;
    }
}
</script>

Answer 3

None of the answers worked well for me. The easy solution in my case was:

$("#selectToNotAllow").focus(function(e) {
    $("#someOtherTextfield").focus();
});

This accomplishes clicking or tabbing to the select drop down and simply moves the focus to a different field (a nearby text input that was set to readonly) when attempting to focus on the select. May sound like silly trickery, but very effective.

Answer 4

This was the ONLY thing that worked for me (on Chrome Version 54.0.2840.27):

$('select').each(function() {
  $(this).data('lastSelectedIndex', this.selectedIndex);
});
$('select').click(function() {
  $(this).data('lastSelectedIndex', this.selectedIndex);
});

$('select[class*="select-with-confirm"]').change(function() {  
  if (!confirm("Do you really want to change?")) {
    this.selectedIndex = $(this).data('lastSelectedIndex');
  }
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<select id='fruits' class="select-with-confirm">
  <option selected value="apples">Apples</option>
  <option value="bananas">Bananas</option>
  <option value="melons">Melons</option>
</select>

<select id='people'>
  <option selected value="john">John</option>
  <option value="jack">Jack</option>
  <option value="jane">Jane</option>
</select>

Answer 5

Implement custom readonly like eventHandler

<select id='country' data-changeable=false>
  <option selected value="INDIA">India</option>
  <option value="USA">United States</option>
  <option value="UK">United Kingdom</option>
</select>

<script>
    var lastSelected = $("#country option:selected");

    $("#country").on("change", function() {
       if(!$(this).data(changeable)) {
            lastSelected.attr("selected", true);              
       }        
    });

    $("#country").on("click", function() {
       lastSelected = $("#country option:selected");
    });
</script>

Demo : https://jsfiddle.net/0mvajuay/8/

Answer 6

In the event someone needs a generic version of mattsven's answer (as I did), here it is:

$('select').each(function() {
    $(this).data('lastSelected', $(this).find('option:selected'));
});

$('select').change(function() {
    if(my_condition) {
        $(this).data('lastSelected').attr('selected', true);
    }
});

$('select').click(function() {
    $(this).data('lastSelected', $(this).find('option:selected'));
});