Drop down manipulation

[saracen]

Im sure its a very newbie question but:

I have a button that when clicked passes hidden values of date, location etc. to a php script that outputs these values. What I would like to do is, for example with the date value, output the correct value but in a drop down list of all other choices (ie make the passed value the selected one but give the user the choice to change it). Basically, the question is, how do I make a particualr variable the selected option in a drop down list?

Thanks.

[Atari]

I'm a newbie also and I asked just a question like this one a few hours ago.

In the drop down box you have to enter
<? print $thevariableyouwanthere ?> where you want it to appear and make sure that the file containing this dropdown is a php-file.

If I understand what you meant.

greetz

[Buddha443556]

Something like this:

<SELECT>
<!-- This Option is NOT SELECTED -->
<OPTION ID="whatever1" value="Chain">Chain
<!-- This Option is SELECTED -->
<OPTION ID="whatever2" value="USA" SELECTED>America
</SELECT>

Not really a PHP question. 🙂

[saracen]

Buddah, thanks but fortunately I am aware of the Selected command. My question was how to change the selected option dynamically based on the hidden variable passed to the page.

Atari, I think, but being a newbie not sure, that what you said would just print the hidden variable. I can do that (and by the looks of it will end up doing that) , I justed wanted to provide the option for the user to change the variable without resorting to a new form.

[Atari]

ah, m'k. Sorry, I don't now how to do that.

I just looked at your site. Nice work by the way.

Greetz,

[cahva]

<select name="selecta">
<option value="option1" <?php if ($_POST['selecta']=='option1') {echo 'SELECTED'; } ?>>Option1</option>
<option value="option2" <?php if ($_POST['selecta']=='option2') {echo 'SELECTED'; } ?>>Option2</option>
</select>

..And ofcourse if you are using forms method as 'GET' then use $GET instead of $POST..

[saracen]

Thank you very much Cahva. Thats perfect. In my desperation I tried a few things and got this working for the day of the month:

echo "<tr><td><Select name=$day>";
FOR($x = 1; $x <= 31; $x++){

echo "<option ";
IF($x == $day)
{echo "SELECTED";
}
echo ">$x</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Which is great cuz its short. Question is now, instead of doing a comparison for every option, would it be possible to use an array to do a similar thing for non-integer based lists!

Thanks for the compliment Atari. My site took me a while and still isnt 100% done!!

[cahva]

Originally posted by saracen
Question is now, instead of doing a comparison for every option, would it be possible to use an array to do a similar thing for non-integer based lists!

Yeah, why not. It would go something like this:

<select name="selecta">
for ($i=0; $i<count($option))
{
echo "<option value='".$option[$i]."' ";
if ($option[$i]==$_POST['selecta'])
{
echo "SELECTED";
}
echo ">".$option[$i]."</option>\n";
}

[saracen]

Thanks again Cahva,

But being the newbie that I am, is the $option the name of the array?

[cahva]

You thought right. $option is an array in which you have put the list values before.

For example you have the weekdays:

$weekdays='Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday';

// Explode them to array
$option=explode(',',$weekdays);

Now you would have $option[0] as 'Monday', $option[1] as 'Tuesday'... and so on.

[saracen]

hmm, seem to be getting parse errors.

[cahva]

Whoops! 🙂 I forgot the php tag if you didnt notice. And FOR sentence i forgot to add $i. Heres those two combined for example:

<select name="selecta">
<?php
$weekdays='Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday';

// Explode them to array
$option=explode(',',$weekdays);

for ($i=0; $i<count($option); $i++)
{
echo "<option value='".$option[$i]."' ";
if ($option[$i]==$_POST['selecta'])
{
echo "SELECTED";
}
echo ">".$option[$i]."</option>\n";
}
?>
</select>

[saracen]

Fantastic!!! Couldnt get it to work at first but now its great. Odd thing is though I had to replace

if ($option[$i]==$_POST['selecta'])

with

if ($option[$i}==$selecta

for it to work. But hey, if it works, it works..!!!
🙂

Thanks a million Cahva

[Buddha443556]

Might try adding:

global $_POST;

Using $_POST is always better. You never know when you'll find yourself on a server with register_globals = off. I personally have them turned off on my servers. Safer that way.

Know the answer couldn't be that simple earlier. 😉

[saracen]

Is that why $_Post['selecta'] isnt working but $selecta is you reckon?