Ice, I just recently released a plugin that might suit your needs. It's basically a way to transmit HTML as JSON for this exact kind of thing.
Check out: code.google.com/p/hsjn Taking the case you gave, if you change the JSON your returning to: [['option', {value: 1}, 'Physics'],['option', {value: 2}, 'Chemistry'], ['option', {value: 3}, 'Biology']] You can do the following in your ajax success function: success: function(data){ var el = $('#idOfYourDropdown').children().remove(); $.each(data, function(){ el.hsjn(this); }); } iceangel89 wrote: > i am new to jquery and what i intend to do now is to load json from > server and then based on the json, remove all options from a drop down > and populate it with new items from the json. something like a > cascading drop down. > > i dunno if the json outputted is correct? do i need something like > "department": ['xxx', 'yyy', 'zzz'] > > [ > {Value: 1, Item: Physics}, > {Value: 2, Item: Chemistry}, > {Value: 3, Item: Biology} > ] > > then i want to remove all <option> from a drop down then populate it > with something like > > <option value="1">Physics</option> > <option value="2">Chemistry</option> > <option value="3">Biology</option> > > if possible, it will be good if i can have a default "null" option eg > "Please select an option" that does not do anything if the user > selects it or shows at the start and disappears once user selects it? > whats the best way of having this default value? i think its very > common.