JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

by David Thomas

HTML

<select id="select"></select>

JavaScript

function populateWithChildren(parent, childTag, values) {
  if (!parent || !values) {
    return false;
  } else {
    values = typeof values === "string" ? values.split(',') : values;
    for (var i = 0, len = values.length; i < len; i++) {
      var newElem = document.createElement(childTag),
        text = document.createTextNode(values[i]);
      newElem.appendChild(text);
      parent.appendChild(newElem);

    }
  }
}

var parent = document.getElementById('select'),
  x = 'Jenny,John,Stephanie,Marc,Ryan,Jessica';

populateWithChildren(parent, 'option', x);