How to find the value of a dropdown in a user control using jQuery

you may have an asp:Dropdown control with an id="ddViewBy" like below.

<asp:DropDownList class="ddList" runat="server" ID="ddViewBy" AutoPostBack="true" OnSelectedIndexChanged="ddViewBy_Changed"><asp:DropDownList>

If your dropdownlist is in a user control and the usercontrol is in a content place holder, then when you view source, on the web page the id of the control would change to something like this:

id="ctl00_phContent_ucSearchFilter_ddViewBy"

To find the value of the dropdown using jQuery, use the following selector

$('select[id$=ddViewBy]').val();

This is reliable, because your user control could be in different place holders which would cause the first part of the id to be different. The controls id will always end with your original name.

The $= means "ends with"

Just an FYI, ^= means "begins with"