[Resolved] multiple select

zzz

I have a few dropdown menus on a page for editing a profile. I'd like it to select the value that is already in my db. It works fine when it's a single selected value, but how do I do it when I need to select multiple values.

Here's how I did a single value:

<?
$co_data = $db->get_row("SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE id = $id");
$country = $table1->co_country;
$country = str_replace("_", " ", $country);
?>

<select name=co_country>
<option value="<? echo ("$table1->co_country\" selected>".$country); ?>
<option value="Argentina">Argentina
<option value="Australia">Australia
<option value="Other">Other
</select>

BlueMeteor

if you want to select multiple.....then u cant use dropdown....

zzz

Why cann't you use multiple select with the drop-down and if not what are thye options?

stolzyboy

he means it won't look like a real drop down, when in reality it is a drop down that is expanded...

zzz

I don't care how it looks. it's going to be on an admin page and all I need is a functionality here.

How do I do that, that's my question.

stolzyboy

Originally posted by zzz
I don't care how it looks. it's going to be on an admin page and all I need is a functionality here.

How do I do that, that's my question.

sorry that was in reply to meteor

stolzyboy

this is just an example of how i've done it, you grab the results from the db, then create an array out of them and check with in_array, if they are in the array, you echo selected, my select is populating from a db also, so that is why another while is in there, you can disregard it

<select size="4" name="locations[]" multiple class="text1">
<?
$checked_locs = $row1['location']; //this is from the database
$checked_locs = explode(", ", $checked_locs);

$queryc = "select * from locations order by locations;";
$resultc = mysql_query($queryc) or die(mysql_error());

while ($rowc = mysql_fetch_array($resultc))
{
?>
<option value="<? echo $rowc['locations']; ?>"<? if (in_array($rowc['locations'], $checked_locs)) echo " selected"; ?>><? echo $rowc['locations']; ?></option>
<?
}
?>
</select>

zzz

Thanks. That looks good. Let me try it...

zzz

Are there any advantages in putting locations in db and then grabbing them from there through while statement? I use this 3 times ona page and perhaps I can and use this too?..

stolzyboy

not necessarily, its just that my client wants to update the locations themselves, so i made a page for them to delete or add locations as they wish

zzz

Well, it's turning into another loooong day and naturally I start messing up simple things. Here's what I've got so far

<?
$co_data = $db->get_row("SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE id = $id");
$country = $table1->co_country;
$country = str_replace("_", " ", $country);
?>

<select size="4" name=country multiple>
<?
$checked_locs = "$table1->co_country";
$checked_locs = explode(", ", $checked_locs);
?>
<option value="<? echo "$table1->co_country"; ?>"<?
if (in_array("$table1->co_country", $checked_locs))
echo " selected>".$country; ?>
<option value="Argentina">Argentina
<option value="Australia">Australia
<option value="Other">Other
</select>

The problems I see here are:

if I have just a few options to select, and then prepopulate them from db I'd have multiple repeats in the drop down since some are returned dynamically and some are hard coded.

Plus I must've oversimplified the code because all it does is just return only one earlier selected option and not multiple. In fact I just checked db and apparently even when I innitially try to process multiple options only one get's recorder. DO I need to tweak that part too. I just process it through:

$db->query("INSERT INTO table1 co_country) VALUES ('$co_country')") ;

stolzyboy

when you name your select box, name is country[], this will force it to be an array, then you can do an implode(", ", $country) before putting it into the database, then thats when you do the explode, when taking it back and putting it into the option's

zzz

I'm sorry to bug you with these little discoveries... I renamed the drop-down to include [] and indeed it treated it as an array, but also, instead of entering options into the db it recorded a word "array". Now, that field in the db is type TEXT. shall I change it to somethingelse?

stolzyboy

like i said, before you put it into the db, do this

$varname = @implode(", ", $varname);

then it will put what you select into the db like

select, anotherselect, etc, lastone

zzz

Wow. Never heard of this before... it works great!

zzz

New problem. Every time I process form it just keeps edding it to the db table cell. Even the same option is being added multiple times. How do i avoid that? Do I need to DELETE first and then add again? Can't be...

stolzyboy

well, ya done got me confused now, what part are you working on now

zzz

OK, I guess you've read the warning under my signature now 😉

Anyway. I have two pages. On page1.php I have a form with a multiple dropdown. The code snippet for it is:

<?
$co_data = $db->get_row("SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE id = $id");
$country = $table1->co_country;
$country = str_replace("_", " ", $country);
?>

// This is not in the code, just an explanation
// echo "$table1->co_country"; will return my db value
<select name="co_country[]" multiple>
<?
$checked_locs = "$table1->co_country";
$checked_locs = explode(", ", $checked_locs);
?>
<option value="<? echo "$table1->co_country"; ?>"<?
if (in_array("$table1->co_country", $checked_locs))
echo " selected>".$country; ?>
<option value="Argentina">Argentina
<option value="Australia">Australia
...
<option value="Other">Other
</select>

When I POST the form it hits page2.php that has the following code:

$co_country = @implode(", ", $co_country);
$db->query("UPDATE co_data SET co_country='$co_country' WHERE co_id = $co_id");

Now, here's what's happening:

on page1.php I do not get values returned and highlighted
on page2.php everything seem to work OK except it adds options from dropdown on page1.php everytime I submit the form...

I sure hope this clears it a bit.

zzz

This sting returns everything I have in a table cell, separated by commas:

echo "$table1->co_country";

How do I turn it into an array?