Select Dropdowns

[rcoursey]

How would I generate the options of a SELECT form entity based on fields in a database table?

Also, a function to "select" the value found in the table associated with the dropdown and display it correctly in the form.

Just get me pointed in the right direction!

Thanks

[kevinsequeira]

<?
mysql_connect("localhost", "xxx", "xxxx");
mysql_select_db("xxxxx");
$query = "SELECT * FROM tablename";
$result = mysql_query($query);
?>
<select name="choices">
<option value=0>select</option>
<?php
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo "<option value=".$row[0].">".$row[1]."</option>";
}
?>
</select>

Also, a function to "select" the value found in the table associated with the dropdown and display it correctly in the form.

didnt understand what u mean

reg
kevin

[rcoursey]

Originally posted by kevinsequeira
<?
mysql_connect("localhost", "xxx", "xxxx");
mysql_select_db("xxxxx");
$query = "SELECT * FROM tablename";
$result = mysql_query($query);
?>
<select name="choices">

What does the next line do? Is it an initial dummy value?
<option value=0>select</option>

<?php
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){

I take $row[0] is the stored value and $row[1] is the items that display in the dropdown. Yes or no?

echo "<option value=".$row[0].">".$row[1]."</option>";
}
?>
</select>



didnt understand what u mean

When the information is queried from the DB and displayed in a form you would wand the value in the DB field to be the selected item in the displayed form. It could then be changed if needed.

reg
kevin

[kevinsequeira]

well maybe i mis-understood what you wanted, the code snippet i posted does this :

queries a database and displays the record values of a table in a drop-down box.

eg
table name = users
id|user_name
1|me
2|you
3|them
4|us

then the code does this

<select name="choices">
<option value=0>select</option>
<option value=1>me</option>
<option value=2>you</option>
<option value=3>them</option>
<option value=4>us</option>
</select>

$row[0] refers to column id and row[1] refers to user_name.

<option value=0>select</option> is the initial default value

reg
kevin

[rcoursey]

Thanks,

I understand what you are doing now. That solves the first issue.

My second question deals with how to retrieve the info previously inserted into a record. Since the user would have already "selected" an option you would want that option to be selected when the record is displayed in a form for editing. Am I being more lucid on the second part of the request?

[jubripley]

If you want a certain value to be preselected, just modify the loop a little:

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
if ($row[0] == '<some value>') {
$selected = ' selected';
} else {
$selected = '';
}
echo "<option value=".$row[0].$selected.">".$row[1]."</option>";
}

---

The if statement could be shortened:
$selected = ($row[0] == '<some value>')? ' selected':'';

but I think that syntax is weird and kind of hard to read.

[kevinsequeira]

table name = users
id|user_name|year
1|me|1975
2|you|1980
3|he|1976
4|she|1959

suppose ive come to this page and am now displaying the age
<?php
$id = $_REQUEST['id'];
$query = "select * from users where id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
<select name="year">
<option value=0>select you year</option>
<?php
for($i=1900;$i<2003;$i++){
if($row['year']==$i){
$selected = "selected";
else
$selected = "";
echo "<option value=".$i." ".$selected.">".$i."</option>";
}
?>
</select>

reg
kevin