Q:

Trying to get value of the options in select tag

I'm using a select tag to create a currency menu , what I'm trying to do is get the value of the selector so i can turn it into a variable to use. I already tried various methods that were also posted on stack but I keep getting returned my line of code instead of the value of the currency.  
this is my javascript. 
function go(){
var sel = document.getElementById('userCurrency');
var userCurrency = sel.options[sel.selectedIndex].text;
}
var newP = $("<p>")
var userDate = ("#userDate")
var bitcoinApiUrl = "https://crossorigin.me/https://api.bitcoincharts.com/v1/markets.json";
$(document).ready(function(){
  $(".btn").on("click", function(){
    console.log(userCurrency)
    $.ajax({
      type: "GET",
      url: bitcoinApiUrl,
      dataType: "json",
      success: function(currency) {
        // loop through currency
        for (var i = 0; i < currency.length; i++) 
        {
          if(currency[i].currency == "USD")
          {
              var $tr = $("<tr />");
              $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].volume) );
              $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].latest_trade) );
              $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].bid) );
              $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].high) );

              $("#theTable tbody").append($tr);

          }
        }
      }
      });
    });
  });

my html 
<!-- currency select -->
<label class="">
    <span class="">Pick a currency</span>
      <select id="userCurrency" style="display: inline; width: auto; vertical-align: inherit;" onChange="go()">
    <option value="USD">USD</option>
    <option value="EUR">EUR</option>
    <option>JPY</option>
    <option>GBP</option>
    <option>CHF</option>
    <option>CAD</option>
    <option>AUD</option>
    <option>MXN</option>
    <option>CNY</option>
    <option>NZD</option>
    <option>SEK</option>
    <option>RUB</option>
    <option>HKD</option>
    <option>NOK</option>
    <option>SGD</option>
    <option>TRY</option>
    <option>KRW</option>
    <option>ZAR</option>
    <option>BRL</option>
    <option>INR</option>
  </select>
</label>
<!-- select end -->

A:

This can be done by using $('#selectId option:selected').text();. 
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".btn").on("click", function(){
var userCurrency = $('#userCurrency option:selected').text();
console.log(userCurrency)
$.ajax({
  type: "GET",
  url: bitcoinApiUrl,
  dataType: "json",
  success: function(currency) {
    // loop through currency
    for (var i = 0; i < currency.length; i++) 
    {
      if(currency[i].currency == "USD")
      {
          var $tr = $("<tr />");
          $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].volume) );
          $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].latest_trade) );
          $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].bid) );
          $tr.append( $("<td />").text(currency[i].high) );

          $("#theTable tbody").append($tr);

      }
    }
  }
  });
});
});

Here is a Fiddle for the same.

