<p>Does anyone know how many options a drop down list can have? Is it unlimited?  How many before performance degrades?</p>

[{'answer_id': 42766, 'author': 'Jason Bunting', 'author_id': 1790, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1790', 'pm_score': 6, 'selected': True, 'text': "<blockquote>\n  <p>Does anyone know how many options a drop down list can have? Is it unlimited? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I imagine it is unlimited in theory, obviously not in practice as a computer's RAM and the specific browser's limitations come into play.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>How many before performance degrades?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, this would depend on a few factors, at the least the specific browser, the computer's memory and processing power.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>EDIT: From experience, I have had drop down lists with thousands of options. It wasn't ideal though because who wants to scroll through all of those? This is why an auto-complete of some type is more desirable for numerous reasons, especially the end user's experience.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 42771, 'author': 'Ethan Gunderson', 'author_id': 2066, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2066', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>I've used right around 500 in a list with no noticeable performance impact if that helps!</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 42773, 'author': 'stjohnroe', 'author_id': 2985, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2985', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>In my experience the performance degradation is generally on the side of the user, my golden rule (learned somewhere) is seven options, give or take a few.</p>\n\n<p>On a more SW related basis, probably the top range of Integer.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: BTW This is kind of relevant from <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000966.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Atwood</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22330536, 'author': 'Katesclau', 'author_id': 1014667, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1014667', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Update: Based on DannyG, tested on Ubuntu with Firefox on a 4GB mem pc, limit was far beyond 10k tags. My current Firefox is set to use up to 3GB and it has reached a 100k options, but for that, you\'d have to change the default config of the browser I guess.</p>\n<p>We opted to use an Ajax autocomplete as replacement in all cases that 30+ options where given.</p>\n<p>Both Firefox and Chrome limited to 10k options in Windows 64b with 4GB ram on default config.</p>\n<p>Tested with JSFiddle\n<a href="http://jsfiddle.net/Mare6/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://jsfiddle.net/Mare6/</a></p>\n<p><div class="snippet" data-lang="js" data-hide="false" data-console="true" data-babel="false">\r\n<div class="snippet-code">\r\n<pre class="snippet-code-js lang-js prettyprint-override"><code>for (var i=0; i&lt;10000; i++) {\n    var name = "Option "+i;\n    var sel = document.getElementById("list");\n    sel.options[sel.options.length] = new Option(name,i);\n}</code></pre>\r\n<pre class="snippet-code-html lang-html prettyprint-override"><code>&lt;a&gt;Testing Select&lt;/a&gt;\n&lt;select id="list"&gt;&lt;/select&gt;</code></pre>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</p>\n<p>Regards,</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 24842757, 'author': 'Ben', 'author_id': 3513171, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3513171', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>In theory, there is no limit, but some browsers will implement limits. (Similar to using <code>document.write</code> in an infinite loop.)</p>\n\n<p>But, at the end of the day, the most I would ever recommend in a drop-down-list, is about 50, just because no-one wants to do that much scrolling. That said, if organized, say by alphabetical order, it may be appropriate to have as many as 200 items in a drop-down-list. (Like for a sign-up form where you must select you country of birth.)</p>\n\n<p>Also, when you have many different set choices, a drop-down-list is normally the best option, regardless. </p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 33441179, 'author': 'Kevin London', 'author_id': 1021177, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1021177', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Yes, the maximum for Chrome and Safari is 10000 items for <code>select</code> elements at least.</p>\n\n<p>The relevant lines in the Chrome source can be found here: \n<a href="https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink.git/+/master/Source/core/html/HTMLSelectElement.cpp#77" rel="noreferrer">Defined max of 10000</a>, <a href="https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink.git/+/master/Source/core/html/HTMLSelectElement.cpp#473" rel="noreferrer">Code that enforces limit and puts error in console</a></p>\n\n<p>Firefox seems to have no practical limit from my testing.</p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/42763', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/415/']