How to make the first option of <select> selected with jQuery

$("#target").val($("#target option:first").val());

You can try this

$("#target").prop("selectedIndex", 0);

// remove "selected" from any options that might already be selected
$('#target option[selected="selected"]').each(
    function() {
        $(this).removeAttr('selected');
    }
);


// mark the first option as selected
$("#target option:first").attr('selected','selected');

When you use

$("#target").val($("#target option:first").val());

this will not work in Chrome and Safari if the first option value is null.

I prefer

$("#target option:first").attr('selected','selected');

because it can work in all browsers.