select list

starter911

Hello!
I have a form on my page where you can enter different fields and then process them to be written on a database. I also have a select list, that retrieves data from my database. I now want one of the fields to be "filled" with whatever I select from the list. How do I do that???
see the code below:

cheers

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>
<head>
<title>Enter new Task</title>
</head>
<form method="POST" action="input.php">
<body>
<center>
<h1>New Task</h1>
<h3>Please fill in the details below to enter a new task. Fields shown in <font color="red">red</font> are mandatory.</h3>

<?php
include 'db.php';
include 'error.php';

function selectDistinct ($connection,
$tableName,
$columnName,
$pulldownName,
$additionalOption,
$defaultValue)
{
$defaultWithinResultSet = FALSE;

 // Query to find distinct values of $columnName
 // in $tableName
 $distinctQuery = "SELECT DISTINCT $columnName
                   FROM $tableName";

 // Run the distinctQuery on the databaseName
 if (!($resultId = @ mysql_query ($distinctQuery, 
                                  $connection)))
    showerror();

 // Retrieve all distinct values
 $i = 0;
 while ($row = @ mysql_fetch_array($resultId))
    $resultBuffer[$i++] = $row[$columnName];

 // Start the select widget
 echo "\n<select name=\"$pulldownName\">";       

 // Is there an additional option?
 if (isset($additionalOption))
    // Yes, but is it the default option?
    if ($defaultValue == $additionalOption)
       // Show the additional option as selected
       echo "\n\t<option selected>$additionalOption";
    else
       // Just show the additional option
       echo "\n\t<option>$additionalOption";

 // check for a default value
 if (isset($defaultValue))
 {
    // Yes, there's a default value specified

    // Check if the defaultValue is in the 
    // database values
    foreach ($resultBuffer as $result)
       if ($result == $defaultValue)
          // Yes, show as selected
          echo "\n\t<option selected>$result";
       else
          // No, just show as an option
          echo "\n\t<option>$result";
 }  // end if defaultValue
 else 
 { 
    // No defaultValue

    // Show database values as options
    foreach ($resultBuffer as $result)
       echo "\n\t<option>$result";
 }
 echo "\n</select>";

} // end of function

// Connect to the DBMS
if (!($connection = @ mysql_connect($hostName,
$username,
$password)))
die("Could not connect to database");

if (!mysql_select_db($databaseName))
showerror();

echo "\nPriority: ";

// Produce the select list
// Parameters:
// 1: Database connection
// 2. Table that contains values
// 3. Attribute that contains values
// 4. <SELECT> element name
// 5. An additional non-database value
// 6. Optional <OPTION SELECTED>
selectDistinct($connection,
"priority",
"status",
"status",
"All",
"All");
?>
<table>
<col span="1" align="right">
<tr>
<td><font color="red">Name:</font></td>
<td><input type="text" name="employee_name" size=50></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><font color="red">Company:</font></td>
<td><input type="text" name="company" size=50></td>
</tr>

<tr>

<td><font color="red">Priority</font></td>
<td><input type="text" name="priority" size=50 value="!!!this is where I want the selected item to be,so I can process it to my database!!!!"</td>
</tr>

</body>
</html>