Selectitem

Selectitem, often written as SelectItem, is a term used in user interface libraries to represent a single option within a selection component such as a dropdown or list. It typically encapsulates the data needed to display the option and to submit a corresponding value when the option is chosen.

In JavaServer Faces (JSF), the class javax.faces.model.SelectItem serves as a standard implementation of this concept. A SelectItem holds at least two pieces of information: a label, which is shown to the user, and a value, which is submitted or bound to the application when the item is selected. Many implementations also allow an optional description for accessibility, an escape flag to control HTML escaping of the label, and a noSelectionOption flag to indicate a placeholder item such as “Select…” at the top of a list. SelectItem objects are serializable to support JSF’s state saving. The framework commonly uses lists of SelectItem or maps of label-value pairs to populate components like UISelectOne and UISelectMany, often via the f:selectItems tag or directly by passing a collection.

Beyond JSF, the general idea of a select item appears in other UI toolkits as a simple pair of value and label. The concept may also be extended with grouping (SelectItemGroup in JSF) to organize options into optgroups within a single selection control.

In summary, selectitem is a lightweight data structure for representing a single selectable option, pairing what the user sees (label) with what the system uses internally (value), and it is a fundamental building block for populating selection controls in many frameworks.