How to retrieve the dropdown value in edit form with jquery?

Question

So,i have a form with a country dropdown in it so when i am adding the counrty it is inserting into database but when i click on edit i am fetching the values of all other fields except the dropdown it is not showing the country which was added previously in the dropdown can some one help ?? i am trying to do this with jquery , i am using semantic for frontend with jsp and servlet for the backend i am new to this please guide and edits in question to improve it is appreciated i will try to add what i have tried so far.

<div class="three fields">
    <div class="field">
      <label>Country</label>
       
<select class="country" id = "form_country" class= "form-control"  name="country" > 
    <option value="HI">Hawaii</option>
    <option value="ID">Idaho</option>
    <option value="IL">Illinois</option>
    <option value="IN">Indiana</option>
    <option value="IA">Iowa</option>
    <option value="KS">Kansas</option>
    <option value="KY">Kentucky</option>
    <option value="LA">Louisiana</option>
    <option value="ME">Maine</option>
    <option value="MD">Maryland</option>
    <option value="MA">Massachusetts</option>
    <option value="MI">Michigan</option>
    <option value="MN">Minnesota</option>
    <option value="MS">Mississippi</option>
    <option value="MO">Missouri</option>
    <option value="MT">Montana</option>
    <option value="NE">Nebraska</option>
    <option value="NV">Nevada</option>
    <option value="NH">New Hampshire</option>
    <option value="NJ">New Jersey</option>
    <option value="NM">New Mexico</option>
    <option value="NY">New York</option>
    <option value="NC">North Carolina</option>
    <option value="ND">North Dakota</option>
    <option value="OH">Ohio</option>
    <option value="OK">Oklahoma</option>
    <option value="OR">Oregon</option>
    <option value="PA">Pennsylvania</option>
    <option value="RI">Rhode Island</option>
    <option value="SC">South Carolina</option>
    <option value="SD">South Dakota</option>
    <option value="TN">Tennessee</option>
    <option value="TX">Texas</option>
    <option value="UT">Utah</option>
    <option value="VT">Vermont</option>
    <option value="VA">Virginia</option>
    <option value="WA">Washington</option>
    <option value="WV">West Virginia</option>
    <option value="WI">Wisconsin</option>
    <option value="WY">Wyoming</option>
      </select>  

i tried using these

      $('.form_country a').click(function () {           
        $('button').text($(this).text());
      });



$('input[name="country"]').click(function (){
     
     if ($(this).value()== "<c:out value='${editUser.country}'/>")
         $('button').text($(this).text());
        
   });
     
$('.country ').click(function(e){
        $('.button').text(this.innerHTML);
    }); 
    
 function answers() {
     var answer=document.getElementById("form_coutry");
      if(answer[answer.selectedIndex].value == "India") {
       alert("That's correct!"); 
      }
     }
 
 $('.country ').click(function () {           
        $('button[data-toggle="dropdown"]').text($(this).text());
    }); 



     var NewOprionValue = "Demo"

       var RemoveSelected = $("#form_country")[0].innerHTML.replace('selected', '');
       var ChangeSelected = RemoveSelected.replace(NewOption, NewOption + 'selected>');
       $('#form_country').html(ChangeSelected);

Answer 1

try $("#form_country).val(); to retrieve value of dropdown field