jQuery select box validation

I have following code in jQuery.
I need to display a validation message "Year Required" when the option value of select element is "0".

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
   $("#register").validate({
       debug: true,
       rules: {
           year: {
               required: function () {
                   if ($("#year option[value='0']")) {
                       return true;
                   } else {
                       return false;
                   }
               }
           }
       },
       messages: {
           year: "Year Required",
       },
   });
})
</script>

Select box

<select name="year"  id="year">
    <option value="0">Year</option>
    <option value="1">1919</option>
    <option value="2">1920</option>
    <option value="3">1921</option>
    <option value="4">1922</option>
</select>

Solution 1:

Since you cannot set value="" within your first option, you'll need to create your own rule using the built-in addMethod() method.

jQuery:

$(document).ready(function () {

    $('#myform').validate({ // initialize the plugin
        rules: {
            year: {
                selectcheck: true
            }
        }
    });

    jQuery.validator.addMethod('selectcheck', function (value) {
        return (value != '0');
    }, "year required");

});

HTML:

<select name="year">
    <option value="0">Year</option>
    <option value="1">1955</option>
    <option value="2">1956</option>
</select>

Working Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/tPRNd/

Original Answer: (Only if you can set value="" within the first option)

To properly validate a select element with the jQuery Validate plugin simply requires that the first option contains value="". So remove the 0 from value="0" and it's fixed.

jQuery:

$(document).ready(function () {

    $('#myform').validate({ // initialize the plugin
        rules: {
            year: {
                required: true,
            }
        }
    });

});

HTML:

<select name="year">
    <option value="">Year</option>
    <option value="1">1955</option>
    <option value="2">1956</option>
</select>

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/XGtEr/

Solution 2:

To put a require rule on a select list you just need an option with an empty value

<option value="">Year</option>

then just applying required on its own is enough

<script>
    $(function () {
        $("form").validate();
    });
</script>

with form

<form>
<select name="year" id="year" class="required">
    <option value="">Year</option>
    <option value="1">1919</option>
    <option value="2">1920</option>
    <option value="3">1921</option>
    <option value="4">1922</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" />
</form>

fiddle is here

Solution 3:

http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation/Methods/required

edit the code for 'select' as below for checking for a 0 or null value selection from select list

case 'select':
var options = $("option:selected", element);
return (options[0].value != 0 && options.length > 0 && options[0].value != '') && (element.type == "select-multiple" || ($.browser.msie && !(options[0].attributes['value'].specified) ? options[0].text : options[0].value).length > 0);