php or html ? - drop list

[TheBeginner]

Hi guys and girls!

I use php and html forms and I would really like to know one thing.
This form is more or less a search form were two droplists are used. The form is also later shown together with the result. BUT I would really like to let the droplist show the selected rows to the user even in the results page. Can I do it in some way with php?

Here is the droplist:

---

<select name="lan" size="1">
<option value=999>Alla län</option>
<option value=1>Blekinge</option>
<option value=2>Dalarna</option>
<option value=3>Gotland</option>
<option value=4>Gävleborg</option>
<option value=5>Göteborg</option>
<option value=6>Halland</option>
<option value=7>Jämtland</option>
<option value=8>Jönköping</option>
<option value=9>Kalmar</option>
<option value=10>Kronoberg</option>
<option value=11>Norrbotten</option>
<option value=12>Stockholm</option>
<option value=13>Skaraborg</option>
<option value=14>Skåne</option>
<option value=15>Södermanland</option>
<option value=16>Uppsala</option>
<option value=17>Värmland</option>
<option value=18>Västerbotten</option>
<option value=19>Västernorrland</option>
<option value=20>Västmanland</option>
<option value=21>Älvsborg</option>
<option value=22>Örebro</option>
<option value=23>Östergötland</option>
</select>

[DigitalExpl0it]

put all that data into mysql and just pull all the records from the database with php and echo out the <option>$var here type thing

<?
//mysql connection here

$connect = mysql_connect($hostname, $user_name, $user_pass) or die ("<b><center>".mysql_errno().": ".mysql_error()."</b></center>\n");
$db = mysql_select_db($database, $connect) or die ("<b><center>".mysql_errno().": ".mysql_error()."</b></center>\n");
$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT Category FROM category";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die ("<b><center>".mysql_errno().": ".mysql_error()."</b></center>\n");


//php loop code for listbox
?>
<select name="lan" size="1">
<?
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "<option>".$row["Category"]."</option>";
}
mysql_close($connect);
?>
</select>

[TheBeginner]

Thanks for the help. but is still doesn't help me. Let me be more specific:

1. I have a droplist with this options:
   "All countries", "USA", "Canada", "Sweden",.........

2. The innitial value of the droplist the first time a user enters the site will be "All countries"

3. The user will choose a country. Let's say "Canada"

4. The same site is shown, but under the droplist information will be shown that is stored in mySQL about the country "Canada"

5. In this case I want the droplist to show "Canada" and not the innitial value "All countries".

6. If the user choose another country, the site will be updated with new information and also the droplist will display the for the moment actual country.

So what I'm interested in is to have another value as an innitial value everytime the site in loaded after that the user select a country.
It would be great to be able to do it without having the names of the countries in a database, as you suggested.

Is that possible?

[Morital]

If we take the script from DigitalExpl0it as example and u r using MySql u can do next:
from first page we have already asigned variable $lan..

$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT Value, Category FROM category";
.....

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
	/* $row[0] same as $row["Value"] and $row[1] same as $row["Category"] */
if ($row[0] == $lan) {
echo "<option value=\"$row[0]\" selected>$row[1]</option>";
}
else {
echo "<option value=\"$row[0]\">$row[1]</option>";
}
}

.....

Notice "selected" option while creating drop down menu

If u r not using any db u can use file with content something like:
1,Canada;
2,USA;
3,Belgium;
....

in this case read more obout functions file(); or fopen(); and explode();