title: Looping to set dropdown values - jquery object ref error
body: <p>I am not really using the jQuery way of setting the value &amp; text of this dropdown.  I'm not quite sure the jQuery way to set this, however the ref to the dropdown is definitely a jQuery object representing the dropdown.</p>
  
  <p>So my variable holding the jQuery object that is referencing (represending) the dropdown is defined like this:</p>
  
  <p><code>ddlCar = $('#&lt;%=ddlCar.ClientID %&gt;');</code> // yes this is referencing an ASP.NET control id</p>
  
  <p>ddlCar works fine in terms of referencing the dropdown...that's not the issue.</p>
  
  <p>Now here's the code throwing an error and my initial problem:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for (key in carList) 
  {
      ddlCar[0].options[i].text = carList[key].Name;
      ddlCar[0].options[i].value = carList[key].CarId;
      i++;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Error is: <code>ddlCar[0].options[i] is undefined</code></p>
  
  <p>Keep in mind this loop worked when I was referencing the dropdown using standard JS code with getElementByID but now I'm referencing the dropdown through a jQuery object ddlCar and so now the loop broke after changing my ddlCar to ref the dropdown through a jQuery object (using $('#&lt;%=ddlCar.ClientID %>');`).</p>
  
  <p>So for now, I kinda tried to hack this to work.  I know that adding [0] now will allow me to reference dropdown ref which is a jquery object as though it is a RAW DOM element so that I can use it like plain old JS syntax.  But for some reason, I still get undefined for ddlModel[0].options[i].  I know that ddlModel[0] is a valid object because I've used it like this in other parts of my code on the page:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ddlCar[0].options.length = ObjectCount(carList);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So I am curious why this loop is not working first and foremost.  I even tried this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for (key in carList) 
  {
      ddlCar[0].options[0][i].text = carList[key].Name;
      ddlCar[0].options[0][i].value = carList[key].CarId;
      i++;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And I guess last this is kinda a 2-part question.  </p>
  
  <p>What would be the jQuery way of setting the text and value of my dropdown?  I've already got a jQuery object ref to the dropodown so naturally I'm gonna refactor this later not to use JS for the rest of the syntax to set the values.</p>