Help with selected option in form

gamew0rld

I am making a script to generate a javascript code I use on my website to display scores of a competition. I enter the number of groups that competed in an event, and for each group, I have 3 fields to fill out. One of the three fields is a pulldown menu for the rank of each group. Each pull down menu would be the same, but for the first group, I want '1st' to be selected. For the second group, I want '2nd' to be selected. The reason I need a pull down menu is because if there is a tie for some reason, the placement would go 1, 2, 3, 4-tie, 4-tie, 6 instead of 1,2,3,4,5,6. Im sorry if it is confusing, but I am having a hard time explaining this. If you need an example, I should be able to set something up.

$i = 1;
while ($i <= $groups) { 
?>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<select name="rank<?=$i?>">
   <option value="1st">1st
   <option value="1st - Tie">1st - Tie
   <option value="2nd">2nd
   <option value="2nd - Tie">2nd - Tie
   <option value="3rd">3rd
   <option value="3rd Tie ">3rd - Tie
</select>
</td>
<td align="center"><input type="text" name="group<?=$i?>"></td>
<td align="center"><input type="text" maxlength="5"  size="5" name="score<?=$i?>"></td>
</tr>
<?
$i++;

This is what I have so far. I want it so when $i = 1, '1st' is selected. When $i = 2, '2nd' is selected, and so on...

tekky

$i = 1;
while ($i <= $groups) { 
?>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<select name="rank<?=$i?>">
   <option value="1st" <? ($i==1) ? echo "selected" ?>>1st
   <option value="1st - Tie">1st - Tie
   <option value="2nd" <? ($i==2) ? echo "selected" ?>>2nd
   <option value="2nd - Tie">2nd - Tie
   <option value="3rd" <? ($i==3) ? echo "selected" ?>>3rd
   <option value="3rd Tie ">3rd - Tie
</select>
</td>
<td align="center"><input type="text" name="group<?=$i?>"></td>
<td align="center"><input type="text" maxlength="5"  size="5" name="score<?=$i?>"></td>
</tr>
<?
$i++;

I thikn I hve that syntax right (for the option tags... if I remember right SELECTED following the value="" marks taht as the default set option.....

gamew0rld

thanks, but now I need help with one more thing.

For every group that competed, there are three fields:

<input type="text" name="rank1" value="<?=$rank?>">
<input type="text" name="score1" value="<?=$rank?>">
<input type="text" name="group1" value="<?=$rank?>">

This is sort of what it looks like, then for group two, the names would be rank2, score2, and group2, and so on for each group. How would I easily get all of the data? Is there an easier way to do this using arrays?