Selenium WebDriver : how to select item from dropdown list using Selenium WebDriver with java?

1. This is a really bad title. (Edit: It has been improved)
2. Google "select item selenium webdriver" brings up How do I set a an option as selected using selenium-webdriver (selenium 2.0) client in ruby as first result. This is not Java, but you should be able to translate it without too much work. http://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/1355/what-is-the-correct-way-to-select-an-option-using-seleniums-python-webdriver is in the top 5, again not Java but the API is very similar.

Use -

Select(driver.findElement(By.id("gender")).selectByVisibleText("Germany");

You need to import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.Select;

 WebElement selectgender = driver.findElement(By.id("gender"));
 selectgender.sendKeys("Male");

You can use 'Select' class of selenium WebDriver as posted by Maitreya. Sorry, but I'm a bit confused about, for selecting gender from drop down why to compare string with "Germany". Here is the code snippet,

Select gender = new Select(driver.findElement(By.id("gender")));
gender.selectByVisibleText("Male/Female");

Import import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.Select; after adding the above code. Now gender will be selected which ever you gave ( Male/Female).

public class checkBoxSel {

public static void main(String[] args) {

     WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
     EventFiringWebDriver dr = null ;


     dr = new EventFiringWebDriver(driver);
     dr.get("http://www.google.co.in/");

     dr.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

     dr.findElement(By.linkText("Gmail")).click() ;

     Select sel = new Select(driver.findElement(By.tagName("select")));
     sel.selectByValue("fil");

}

}

I am using GOOGLE LOGIN PAGE to test the seletion option. The above example was to find and select language "Filipino" from the drop down list. I am sure this will solve the problem.

WebElement select = driver.findElement(By.id("gender"));
List<WebElement> options = select.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
for (WebElement option : options) {
   if("Germany".equals(option.getText()))
       option.click();   
}

public static void main(String[] args){

     WebDriver webdriver = new FirefoxDriver();
     webdriver.get("http://www.makemytrip.com");

       if(webdriver.findElement(By.id("oneway_r")).isSelected()){

Select leavingfrom = new Select(webdriver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='selorigin_s']"))); leavingfrom.selectByVisibleText("Hyderabad(HYD)");

     }
     else
         System.out.println("Please select the one way trip");

     }

Iam trying to select a value from dropdown box for URL:makemytrip but I am getting Error:Element should have been "select" but was "input" Can anyone post the actual result