Select2 has several built-in methods that allow programmatic control of the component.
## Opening the dropdown
Methods handled directly by Select2 can be invoked by passing the name of the method to `.select2(...)`.
The `open` method will cause the dropdown menu to open, displaying the selectable options:
```javascript
$('#mySelect2').select2('open');
```
## Closing the dropdown
The `close` method will cause the dropdown menu to close, hiding the selectable options:
```javascript
$('#mySelect2').select2('close');
```
## Checking if the plugin is initialized
To test whether Select2 has been initialized on a particular DOM element, you can check for the `select2-hidden-accessible` class:
```javascript
if ($('#mySelect2').hasClass("select2-hidden-accessible")) {
// Select2 has been initialized
}
```
See [this Stack Overflow answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/29854133/2970321).
## Destroying the Select2 control
The `destroy` method will remove the Select2 widget from the target element. It will revert back to a standard `select` control:
```javascript
$('#mySelect2').select2('destroy');
```
### Event unbinding
When you destroy a Select2 control, Select2 will only unbind the events that were automatically bound by the plugin. Any events that you bind in your own code, **including any [Select2 events](events.md) that you explicitly bind,** will need to be unbound manually using the `.off` jQuery method:
```javascript
// Set up a Select2 control
$('#example').select2();
// Bind an event
$('#example').on('select2:select', function(e) {
console.log('select event');
});
// Destroy Select2
$('#example').select2('destroy');
// Unbind the event
$('#example').off('select2:select');
```
## Examples
Single select
Set "California"
Open
Close
Destroy
Re-initialize
Multiple select
Set to California and Alabama
Clear
```html
Single select
Set "California"
Open
Close
Destroy
Re-initialize
Multiple select
Set to California and Alabama
Clear
```
```javascript
var $example = $(".js-example-programmatic").select2();
var $exampleMulti = $(".js-example-programmatic-multi").select2();
$(".js-programmatic-set-val").on("click", function() {
$example.val("CA").trigger("change");
});
$(".js-programmatic-open").on("click", function() {
$example.select2("open");
});
$(".js-programmatic-close").on("click", function() {
$example.select2("close");
});
$(".js-programmatic-init").on("click", function() {
$example.select2();
});
$(".js-programmatic-destroy").on("click", function() {
$example.select2("destroy");
});
$(".js-programmatic-multi-set-val").on("click", function() {
$exampleMulti.val(["CA", "AL"]).trigger("change");
});
$(".js-programmatic-multi-clear").on("click", function() {
$exampleMulti.val(null).trigger("change");
});
```