Access Dropdown box selected value

<select id="ddlViewBy">
<option value="1">test1</option>
<option value="2" selected="selected">test2</option>
<option value="3">test3</option>
</select>

To access value( result will be 2, 3, ...)

var e = document.getElementById("ddlViewBy");
var strUser = e.options[e.selectedIndex].value;

To access text of option do following

var e = document.getElementById("ddlViewBy");
var strUser = e.options[e.selectedIndex].text;