The dropdown column lets a user select one or more options from a selection.

Our API fully supports the dropdown column, so you can read, update, and clear it via the API. You can also filter your items_page query results by the dropdown column.

Filtering the dropdown column

Using the items_page object, you can easily filter a board's items by specific columns or column values. The table below contains the dropdown column's supported operators and compare values.

Operators	Compare values
`any_of`	`""` (blank values) The label IDs to filter by
`not_any_of`	`""`(blank values) The label IDs to filter by
`is_empty`	`null`
`is_not_empty`	`null`
`contains_text`	The partial or whole label text value to filter by
`not_contains_text`	The partial or whole label text value to filter by

👍
Pro tip
items_page is only available in API version 2023-10 and later.

Examples

The following example returns all items on the specified board that have a dropdown column value that contains "Marketing".

query {
  boards (ids: 1234567890) {
    items_page (query_params: {rules: [{column_id: "dropdown", compare_value: ["Marketing"], operator:contains_text}]}) {
      items {
        id
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

Reading the dropdown column

You can query the dropdown column using the column_values object. The object has different fields based on which API version you are using. Column values v2 fields will be available in API versions 2023-10 and later, while column values v1 fields are only supported in versions 2023-07 and 2023-04.

Column values v2

The column_values object enables you to return column-specific subfields by sending a fragment in your query. Values for the dropdown column are of the DropdownValue type.

👍
Pro tip
column_values v2 fields are only available in API version 2023-10.

query {
  items (ids:[1234567890, 9876543210]) {
    column_values {
      ... on DropdownValue {
        values
        column
      }
    }
  }
}

Fields

Field	Description
column `Column!`	The column the value belongs to.
id `ID!`	The column's unique identifier.
text `String`	The column's value as text.
type `ColumnType!`	The column's type.
value `JSON`	The column's JSON-formatted raw value.
values `[DropdownValueOption!]!`	The selected dropdown values.

Column values v1

You can return the data in a dropdown column in two different formats when you query by column values. The text field will return the data as a simple string, and the value field will return the data as a JSON string.

🚧
Removing column values v1 support
column_values v1 fields will no longer be supported in API versions 2023-10 and later.

{
  "text": "Urgent",
  "value": "{\"ids\":[1]}"
}

Updating the dropdown column

You can update a dropdown column with a simple string value or a JSON string value.

❗️
NOTE
It is not possible to mix dropdown labels (the text values) with dropdown IDs in the string values.

Simple strings

Send the IDs of the labels you want to set to update a dropdown column with strings. If you don’t know the IDs of the labels you’re trying to set, you can send the label's text value instead. If you need to update more than one value, you can also send a list of IDs or labels separated by commas.

If you make an API call to update the dropdown column value, but the label doesn't exist, the expected behavior will be an error message. In the output of that error, you will also receive the existing labels for that specific column.

Please note that you can use create_labels_if_missing: true in your query to create labels that didn't previously exist.

Here is a sample query to update the dropdown column using simple string values via dropdown IDs.

mutation {
  change_simple_column_value (item_id:9876543210, board_id:1234567890, column_id:"dropdown", value: "1,2") {
    id
  }
}

fetch ("https://api.monday.com/v2", {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization' : 'YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query : "mutation ($myBoardId:Int!, $myItemId:Int!, $myColumnValue: String!, $columnId: String!) { change_simple_column_value (item_id:$myItemId, board_id:$myBoardId, column_id: $columnId, value: $myColumnValue) { id } }",
    variables : JSON.stringify({
      myBoardId: YOUR_BOARD_ID,
      myItemId: YOUR_ITEM_ID,
      columnId: "YOUR_COLUMN_ID",
      myColumnValue: "dropdown_index_1, dropdown_index_2"
      })
    })
  })

Here is a sample query to update the dropdown column using simple string values with dropdown labels.

mutation {
  change_simple_column_value (item_id:9876543210, board_id:1234567890, column_id:"dropdown", value: "Cookie, Cupcake") {
    id
  }
}

fetch ("https://api.monday.com/v2", {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization' : 'YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query : `mutation ($myBoardId:Int!, $myItemId:Int!, $myColumnValue: String!, $columnId: String!) {
                 change_simple_column_value (item_id:$myItemId, board_id:$myBoardId, column_id: $columnId, value: $myColumnValue) {
                   id
                 }
               }`,
    variables : JSON.stringify({
      myBoardId: YOUR_BOARD_ID,
      myItemId: YOUR_ITEM_ID,
      columnId: "YOUR_COLUMN_ID",
      myColumnValue: "dropdown_label_1, dropdown_label_2"
      })
    })
  })
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2)));

curl "https://api.monday.com/v2" \
-X POST \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-H "Authorization: MY_API_KEY" \
-d '{"query":"mutation{change_simple_column_value (item_id:9876543210,board_id:1234567890, column_id: \"dropdown\", value: \"Cookie, Cupcake\"){ name id}}"}'

You can also find the Postman request to change the dropdown column here.

JSON

You can also update the dropdown column using JSON values, and this can be done with either the ID value or the text label.

📘
NOTE
You can use both String and JSON values when updating column values for change_multiple_column_values mutation, or when using the create_item mutation.

Here is a sample query to update the dropdown column using JSON values with dropdown IDs.

mutation {
  change_multiple_column_values(item_id:9876543210, board_id:1234567890, column_values: "{\"dropdown\": {\"ids\":[1]}}") {
    id
  }
}

fetch ("https://api.monday.com/v2", {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization' : 'YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query : `mutation ($myBoardId:Int!, $myItemId:Int!, $myColumnValues:JSON!) {
                 change_multiple_column_values(item_id:$myItemId, board_id:$myBoardId, column_values: $myColumnValues) {
                   id
                 }
               }`,
    variables : JSON.stringify({
      myBoardId: YOUR_BOARD_ID,
      myItemId: MY_ITEM_ID,
      myColumnValues: JSON.stringify({
      dropdown : {
  			"ids": [1]
			},
      })
    })
  })
})

Here is a sample query to update the dropdown column using JSON values with dropdown labels.

mutation {
  change_multiple_column_values(item_id:9876543210, board_id:1234567890, column_values: "{\"dropdown\":{\"labels\":[\"My label\"]}}") {
    id
  }
}

fetch ("https://api.monday.com/v2", {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization' : 'YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query : `mutation ($myBoardId:Int!, $myItemId:Int!, $myColumnValues:JSON!) {
                 change_multiple_column_values(item_id:$myItemId, board_id:$myBoardId, column_values: $myColumnValues) {
                   id
                 }
               }`,
    variables : JSON.stringify({
      myBoardId: YOUR_BOARD_ID,
      myItemId: MY_ITEM_ID,
      myColumnValues: JSON.stringify({
      dropdown : {
  			"labels": "Cookie"
			},
      })
    })
  })
})

Adding a dropdown value

You can add a new dropdown value to a column using the following mutation.

mutation {
  change_simple_column_value(item_id:1234567890, board_id:9876543210, column_id: "dropdown", value: "New dropdown value", create_labels_if_missing: true) {
    id
  }
}

Arguments for adding a dropdown value

Argument	Description
item_id `Int!`	The item's unique identifier.
board_id `Int!`	The board's unique identifier.
column_id `Int!`	The column's unique identifier.
value `String!`	The new value of the column.
create_labels_if_missing `Boolean`	Create status/dropdown labels if they're missing. (Requires permission to change board structure)

Clearing a dropdown column

You can clear a dropdown column using one of the following mutations.

mutation {
  change_multiple_column_values(item_id:123456789, board_id:987654321, column_values: "{\"dropdown\" : null}") {
    id
  }
}

mutation {
  change_multiple_column_values(item_id:123456789, board_id:987654321, column_values: "{\"dropdown\":{\"labels\":[]}}") {
    id
  }
}

📘
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