Please help PHP coding

trendmatrix

Hi,

This is my first post here and I am a newbie in PHP. I have a problem here with PHP which I hope the gurus here can enlighten me. 🙂 (Pardon me if this seems a very stupid question).

If on the index page (index.php) I have 5 links, that is A, B, C, D, and E. And on the results page (result.php) I will have a drop down box, that contains five items, ie, One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

So if a user click on A in index.php, the result.php will load with One selected in the drop down list box. Similarly if the user click on B in index.php, result.php will load with Two selected, and so and so forth.

May I know how can I code this? I have seen some links that indicate www.xyz.com/index.php?type=MNO kind of thing. What does the question mark (?) do? I guess it may solve my problem above.

Thanks for your time, and I eagerly await for any guidance.

Regards,
TM

laserlight

One method is to use included files with include()

I suggest that you search around for it, I'm sure some methods have been covered before.

The question mark denotes that the string following it is a query string, i.e. the variables are accessed using the $_GET array

trendmatrix

Erm.. so sorry. I am really a nerd in this. I have searched through the forum but none really explain how I can do it. Do you mind explaining further?

THank you

feldon23

The question mark starts the query string. If you have

?name=Elvis&city=Nashville&toy=teddy%20bear

then these values are available:

$GET['name'] = 'Elvis'
$GET['city'] = 'Nashville'
$_GET['toy'] = 'teddy bear'

On your entry page, you would link to results.php?type=A, results.php?type=B, etc.

Here's some untested code for your results.php page to display the dropdown items:


function dropdown_item ($match, $get_var, $itemname) {
  if ($search == $match) {
    echo "<option value=\"{$item}\" SELECTED>{$itemname}</option";
  } else {
    echo "<option value=\"{$item}\">{$itemname}</option";
  }    

}

dropdown_item('A', $_GET['type'], 'Type A');
dropdown_item('B', $_GET['type'], 'Type B');
dropdown_item('C', $_GET['type'], 'Type C');
dropdown_item('D', $_GET['type'], 'Type D');
dropdown_item('E', $_GET['type'], 'Type E');