Remembering "selected" in drop down lists

[Perloe]

I have a drop down list in my user registration page where people signing up choose what state they are from. The form looks like this:

<select name="state">
<option value="AL">Alabama
<option value="AK">Alaska
<option value="AZ">Arizona
<option value="AR">Arkansas
.
.
.
</select>

Later, when people want to update their member info, I want the drop down list to know where they are from and select the appropriate state. So it should look like this:

<select name="state">
<option value="AL" <? if ($state == "AL") echo "selected"; ?>>Alabama
<option value="AK" <? if ($state == "AK") echo "selected"; ?>>Alaska
<option value="AZ" <? if ($state == "AZ") echo "selected"; ?>>Arizona
<option value="AR" <? if ($state == "AR") echo "selected"; ?>>Arkansas
.
.
.
</select>

My question is, is there a better way to do this so I don't have over 50 if statements on my page? I'm wondering if this will really slow down the page.

[cgraz]

You could use a loop, but your values are different than the text you display, so the way you're doing it is fine. Adding this to your page won't slow it down (atleast not anything noticeable).

Cgraz

[mbouclas]

The easiest way out of problems like this is to set up a data base or even an array and do the check inside the loop while filling up the form.