SelectOption Class

A SelectOption object specifies one of the possible values for a Visualforce selectCheckboxes, selectList, or selectRadio component.

Namespace

System

SelectOption consists of a label that is displayed to the end user, and a value that is returned to the controller if the option is selected. A SelectOption can also be displayed in a disabled state, so that a user cannot select it as an option, but can still view it.

Instantiation

In a custom controller or controller extension, you can instantiate a SelectOption in one of the following ways:

1SelectOption option = new SelectOption(value, label, isDisabled);
where value is the String that is returned to the controller if the option is selected by a user, label is the String that is displayed to the user as the option choice, and isDisabled is a Boolean that, if true, specifies that the user cannot select the option, but can still view it.
1SelectOption option = new SelectOption(value, label);
where value is the String that is returned to the controller if the option is selected by a user, and label is the String that is displayed to the user as the option choice. Because a value for isDisabled is not specified, the user can both view and select the option.

Example

The following example shows how a list of SelectOptions objects can be used to provide possible values for a selectCheckboxes component on a Visualforce page. In the following custom controller, the getItems method defines and returns the list of possible SelectOption objects:

1swfobject.registerObject("clippy.codeblock-2", "9");
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17public class sampleCon {
18
19 	String[] countries = new String[]{};
20
21 	public PageReference test() {
22 	 	return null;
23 	}
24
25 	public List<SelectOption> getItems() {
26 	 	List<SelectOption> options = new List<SelectOption>();
27 	 	options.add(new SelectOption('US','US'));
28 	 	options.add(new SelectOption('CANADA','Canada'));
29 	 	options.add(new SelectOption('MEXICO','Mexico'));
30 	 	return options;
31  	}
32
33 	public String[] getCountries() {
34  	 	return countries;
35 	}
36
37 	public void setCountries(String[] countries) {
38 	 	this.countries = countries;
39 	}
40
41}

In the following page markup, the <apex:selectOptions> tag uses the getItems method from the controller above to retrieve the list of possible values. Because <apex:selectOptions> is a child of the <apex:selectCheckboxes> tag, the options are displayed as checkboxes:

1swfobject.registerObject("clippy.codeblock-3", "9");
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17 <apex:page controller="sampleCon">
18 	<apex:form>
19 	 	<apex:selectCheckboxes value="{!countries}">
20 	 	 	<apex:selectOptions value="{!items}"/>
21 	 	</apex:selectCheckboxes><br/>
22 	 	<apex:commandButton value="Test" action="{!test}" rerender="out" status="status"/>
23 	</apex:form>
24 	<apex:outputPanel id="out">
25 	 	<apex:actionstatus id="status" startText="testing...">
26 	 	 	<apex:facet name="stop">
27 	 	 	 	<apex:outputPanel>
28 	 	 	 	 	<p>You have selected:</p>
29 	 	 	 	 	<apex:dataList value="{!countries}" var="c">{!c}</apex:dataList>
30 	 	 	 	</apex:outputPanel>
31 	 	 	</apex:facet>
32 	 	</apex:actionstatus>
33 	</apex:outputPanel>
34</apex:page>

Visualforce Developer’s Guide

SelectOption Class

Namespace

Instantiation

Example