dynamically Adding options to a "select" using jQuery/JavaScript

Personally, I prefer this syntax for appending options:

$('#mySelect').append($('', {
    value: 1,
    text: 'My option'
}));

If you're adding options from a collection of items, you can do the following:

$.each(items, function (i, item) {
    $('#mySelect').append($('', { 
        value: item.value,
        text : item.text 
    }));
});