Sample code for pure JS polyfill. Selecting a value will trigger a 'change' event and alert the value.

To work in IE8 & 9, you must start and end the datalist options with the following tags (view source for example) <!--[if lte IE 9]><select data-datalist="YOUR-LIST-ID"><![endif]--> <!--[if lte IE 9]></select><![endif]-->

Select a state:

Select placeholder text: