code to set a select box option value as an object
You will not be able to store objects/arrays in the value attribute, however an option would be to use data-* attributes which supports json automatically with jQuery 1.4.3+ <select> <option data-value=”{“name”:”rajiv”,”age”:”40″}”>a</option> <option data-value=”{“name”:”mithun”,”age”:”22″}”>f</option> </select> And using .change() $(“select”).change(function(){ alert($(this).find(“:selected”).data(“value”).age); }); Example on jsfiddle