BuildOptionList

Runtime verified Test scripts included

Syntax

BuildOptionList(defaultSelection, option1Value, option1Text[, optionValueN, optionTextN, ...])  →  string

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`defaultSelection`	string \| number	Yes	The option value to mark as selected
`option1Value`	string	Yes	The `value` attribute of the first option
`option1Text`	string	Yes	The display text of the first option
`optionValueN`	string	No	The `value` attribute of a further option
`optionTextN`	string	No	The display text of a further option

Values and display texts are supplied as literal pairs; there is no upper bound on the number of pairs.

Example

%%[
  VAR @options
  SET @options = BuildOptionList("2", "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta", "3", "Gamma")
]%%
<select name="choice">%%=v(@options)=%%</select>

Renders three options, with the second one pre-selected because the default is 2:

<option value="1">Alpha</option>
<option value="2" selected="selected">Beta</option>
<option value="3">Gamma</option>

Pass the default from a data value to reflect a stored preference back to the subscriber:

%%[
  VAR @sizes
  SET @sizes = BuildOptionList(AttributeValue("PreferredSize"), "S", "Small", "M", "Medium", "L", "Large")
]%%

Return value

string — a run of <option> tags, one per value/text pair, in argument order, each on its own line. The output is arbitrary HTML, so there is no closed set of sentinel values to test for.

Behaviour

One <option> per pair, in order. Each optionValue/optionText pair becomes <option value="…">…</option>, emitted in the order the arguments are supplied.

Only the matching pair is selected. The pair whose value equals defaultSelection gets selected="selected"; every other option is left plain. In the example above only the value="2" option carries the attribute.

A numeric default matches a string value of the same digits. BuildOptionList(2, "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta") marks the value="2" option selected — the default is compared loosely against each string value.

A non-matching default selects nothing. BuildOptionList("9", "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta") renders both options with no selected attribute anywhere, rather than defaulting to the first option.

Three arguments is the minimum. BuildOptionList("1", "1", "One") — a default plus a single value/text pair — renders one selected option and returns HTTP 200.

Show test script

%%[
  VAR @b, @basic, @numdefault, @nomatch, @single
  SET @b = RequestParameter("b")

  /* safe sweep: all forms are accepted and can share one request */
  IF @b == "safe" THEN
    SET @basic = BuildOptionList("2", "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta", "3", "Gamma")
    OutputLine(Concat("basic=[", @basic, "]"))
    SET @numdefault = BuildOptionList(2, "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta")
    OutputLine(Concat("numdefault=[", @numdefault, "]"))
    SET @nomatch = BuildOptionList("9", "1", "Alpha", "2", "Beta")
    OutputLine(Concat("nomatch=[", @nomatch, "]"))
    SET @single = BuildOptionList("1", "1", "One")
    OutputLine(Concat("single=[", @single, "]"))
  ENDIF
]%%

Availability

Platform	Available
Marketing Cloud Engagement	Yes
Marketing Cloud Next	No