is it possible to grab the label of a SELECT menu?

I was wondering if it was possible to grab the label of a SELECT drop down menu, in addition to the value...like in this case:

HTML Code:

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  <select name="cat">
  <option value=1>This is option 1
  </select>

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i would want to grab both the value, "1", and the label, "This is option 1", to send off to a script.

You can grab those values in Javascript:

Code:

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var theSelect = document.forms[0].elements['cat'];
var selectedOptionText = theSelect.options[theSelect.selectedIndex].text;
var selectedOptionValue = theSelect.options[theSelect.selectedIndex].value;

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In my example above, selectedOptionText grabs the text part and selectedOptionValue grabs the value part of the selected option.

perfect..thanks

how do I actually add the vars to the form being submitted?

Code:

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<script language="JavaScript1.2" type="text/JavaScript1.2">
function getFormValues(form){
  var theSelect = form.elements['cat'];
  var selectedText = theSelect.options[theSelect.selectedIndex].text;
  var selectedValue = theSelect.options[theSelect.selectedIndex].value;


  var query = form.elements['query'].value;

  form.submit();
}
</script>

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and on the button for the form i have:

Code:

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<input type="button" name="Button" value="Search" onClick="getFormValues(this.form)">

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