How do I save and restore select options?

How do I save and restore select options?

I have a report selection page with one select element. I have 44 options now but expect the list to grow. What we'd like to do is have a radio button for each category and a button for all.

My idea was to save each logical group of options into global variables in the document ready() function
  1.             var allElems = save all options
                var mixedElems = save 'Mixed' class options
                var tbElems = save 'TB' class options
                var qhElems = save 'QH' class options
                var ptElems = save 'PT' class options
                var apElems = save 'AP' class options
Then, using the radio buttion onclick event, pass the class name to a filterOptions function. That function would remove all options from the select and then restore only the class requested. Of course restore all options when the "all" button is checked.
  1.       function filterOptions(elemClass) {
               
                /*
                Step 1.
                    Remove elems from id='targetReport'
                Step 2.
               
                    if (elemClass=='All'){
                        Restore all classes
                    }
                    if (elemClass=='Mixed'){
                        Restore 'Mixed' class only
                    }
                    if (elemClass=='TB'){
                        Restore 'TB' class only
                    }
                    if (elemClass=='QH'){
                        Restore 'QH' class only
                    }
                    if (elemClass=='PT'){
                        Restore 'PT' class only
                    }
                    if (elemClass=='AP'){
                        Restore 'AP' class only
                    }
                */   
            }
 
I tried clone() and append(), as well as several similar ideas that I Googled. I'm new to jQuery and wasn't able to get any example to work.

Is this a logical approach, and is it possible?
Any assistance much appreciated.

Thank you, Lyndon