jQuery / Programmatically Select an Option in Select Box

It's just $("#startTime").val(start_time);

$('#startTime').val(start_time);

update:

As of jQuery 1.9, jQuery has updated this functionality. The "selected" state of an option is actually a property, therefore jQuery has changed this to use the .prop() method. Syntax is very similar and easy to switch:

$('#startTime option[value=17:00:00]').prop('selected', true);

See http://api.jquery.com/prop/#entry-longdesc for why it needs to pass true.

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Older jQuery

$('#startTime option[value=17:00:00]').attr('selected', 'selected');

or

$('#startTime option[value='+ data[0].start +']').attr('selected', 'selected');

UPDATE

As of jQuery 1.9, jQuery has updated changed this functionality. The "selected" state of an option is actually a property, therefore jQuery has changed this to use the .prop() method. Syntax is very similar and easy to switch:

$('option[value=17:00:00]').prop('selected', 'selected');