howto echo a selected value in Form

[Anon]

<select name="cat">
<option value='bill'>Billable&nbsp;
<OPTION value='charge'>Chargeable&nbsp;
<OPTION value='admin'>Administrative&nbsp;
</SELECT>

this is part of a form
the action is $SELF_PHP
how do a echo the selected value after i hit post? I know how to do it in <input type="text"> but just don't know how to echo the selected value in select or radio button.
thanks

[van__]

You have to set up some arrays to traverse to recreate the selectbox or radio buttons or other multiple choice items in a form

$mySelectVals = array('bill'=>'Billable','charge'=>'Chargeable','admin'=>'Administrative');

$selectBox = '<select name="cat">
foreach ($mySelectVals as $key=>$val) {
$selectBox .= '<option value="' . $key . '"';
if ($key == $cat) {
$selectBox .= ' selected';
}
$selectBox .= '>' . $val;

}

$selectBox .= '</select>';

echo $selectBox;

[Anon]

THANKS A LOT.
in case others can't get it to work: just
add a close quote at the end of
$selectBox = '<select name="cat">'
i am interested in database backed web services, any php books you can recommend, greatly appreciated.

[van__]

Hey no problem.

As far as books go, I used Professional PHP Programming by Wrox Press when I first started out, but my version is antiquated and I'm not sure if they've released a new one. I have heard the PHP CookBook is pretty nice and goes into Flash Integration and other niceties for PHP 4.