jquery json to select issues - php

Question

I'm having the below output from an ajax script:
{"DATA":[{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"USA","COUNTRYID":"211"}, {"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Canada","COUNTRYID":"37"},{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Dominican Republic","COUNTRYID":"224"},
I am trying to populate a select menu with info from this JSON data:
<script type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8">
$.getJSON(
'getcountries.php',
function(data) {
var items = [];
$('#country').append(data);
$.each(data['DATA'], function(key, val) {
$.each(val, function(key, value) {
console.log(value);
});
});
}
);
Issue with it is that the $('#country').append(data) (or append(data['DATA']) always returns error "Value does not implement interface Node."
Could anyone point out how I could get the specific JSON data I have into the select script?

Answer 1

.append() only accepts HTML string, DOM Element, or jQuery Object
See: http://api.jquery.com/append/
I assume this is the result you actually want.
var data = {"DATA":[{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"USA","COUNTRYID":"211"},{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Canada","COUNTRYID":"37"},{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Dominican Republic","COUNTRYID":"224"}]};
var $select = $('#country').empty();
$select.append(
data.DATA.map(function (el, i) {
return $('<option>')
.val(el.COUNTRYID)
.text(el.DESCRIPTION)
.data('DATA', el); // in case you also want to access its COUNTRYCODE
})
);
jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/terryyounghk/ZshG4/

Answer 2

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/q5Q3d/
var a = {
"DATA":[
{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"USA","COUNTRYID":"211"},
{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Canada","COUNTRYID":"37"},
{"COUNTRYCODE":"1","DESCRIPTION":"Dominican Republic","COUNTRYID":"224"}
]
}
$.each(a.DATA, function(idx, val){
var option = "<option value='" + val.COUNTRYID + "'>" + val.DESCRIPTION + "</option>";
$('select').append(option);
});