In an "edit article" page i have a select list which displays author first and last name, as well as authorId as the value. As well as the article context and headline and so on (fetched with a different method) - though this method also holds the authorId of the specific article.

I need to have the Author of the Article selected in the option list, instead of it defaulting to the first option in the select list.

what i have:

echo''; //loop through author names in option list $authors_name

            foreach($authors_name as $nameRow){

                echo'<option class="authorId" value = "' . $nameRow['AuthorID'] . '">'. $nameRow['FirstName'].'

'.$nameRow['LastName'] .''; }

          echo'</select>';

and the jquery:

var currID = ('#selectAuthor').val();

    if(('.authorId').val() == currID){
          $('.authorId').addClass('new_class')
          $('.new_class').prop('selected',true);  
    }

OR

var currID = ('#selectAuthor').val();

    if($("select option[value=currID]").attr('selected','selected'));

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I hope what I am trying to do is clear. Thanks in advance

I have simplified it with just regular input and checked it in jsfiddle.net here is the HTML

';

<option value = "2">Name val 2</option>
<option value = "5">Name val 5</option>
<option value = "1">Name val 1</option>

and here is the jquery

var currID = $('#selectAuthor').val(); if($("select option[value='+currID+']").prop('selected',true));?

and even then it doesn't apply selected="selected" to option with value="1"