How to populate drop down dynamically from database column

hongmei

Hi,
Could anyone help me out on dynamic population of drop down value from database?

Thanks

hongmei

Hawkee

I'm not sure what kind of detail you're looking for here so I'll just give you a brief run-down of what needs to be done. First you'll need to run your query on the database and build an array of values that you want put into your drop down. From there, you'll probably want to do something like this:

echo "<select name='select'>";
foreach($database_array as $value)
{
    echo "<option value='$value'>$value</option>"
}
echo "</select>";

I hope this helps!
- Hawkee

dartcol

It might be an idea to do a thorough search before posting. You're not the only person who's done this. Heck, I did it myself but have since learned. I'm only saying this because someone helped me to sort out a drop down, albeit a complicated one, two days ago in the database forum and I also asked this question in this forum about three weeks ago!
Check out this thread for how others are starting to feel.
http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10240313
Peace. 🙂

VictorValdez

I am thankful for the help (I'm glad I did a search) now:

I have inserted this into my page and a drop down list will appear, but it is not populated. I really do feel my problem is with the array part.

How would I go about doing the array?

I have a list of schools in my db column and would like to have the dropdown populate.

Thank you for any help.

jimson

asort(), ksort() might help
read the php manual please...

dartcol

This should work.

<select name="area">
<option selected>Choose an area</option>
<option>____________________</option>

$sql = "SELECT colname FROM tablename ORDER BY colname";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
/* if (!$result) {
	echo("<p>Error performing query: " . mysql_error() . "</p>\n");
	exit(); // Take out once it's working or do something else on the page*/
}
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
	printf ("<option value=\"%s\">%s</option>\n", $row[0], $row[0]);
}
mysql_free_result ($result);

</select>

TruckStuff

One thing to watch for: if the drop down box displays, but is empty, you may want to check the source code of the page. I've run into a couple of instances where PHP displayed error messages but they weren't displayed in the browser because the errors where printed inside the <option> tags.