Giving dynamically created dropdowns a default value

graemer

Hi Guys

I have been trying to write a page in php that allows the user to select values from a database via dropdown boxes, and then to post these values back to the database.

I have most of the functionality working, but am having problems when using the gui to edit a record.

My issues are the dropdown boxes. I have all the previously used data available, as they were pulled from session variables, and I can assign these values back to the text fields on the form, but have been unable to work out how to give the dropdowns a default value.

I know the selected tag in html will work with a list of options, but I am not sure how to use this in my array driven ones.

The code is as follows:
<select name="project" size="1" id="project>
<?php
do {
?>

<option value = "<?php echo $row_Recordset2['Project_Label'?>"</option><?php echo $row_Recordset['Project_Label']?></option>
<?php
}while($row_Recordset2=mysql_fetch_assoc($Recordset2));
$rows = mysql_num_rows($Recordset2);
if ($rows>0){
mysql_data_seek($Recordset2, 0);
$row_Recordset2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($Recordset2);
}
?>
</select>

what i need to know is how to get that to select a default value, specified by the variable $project (grabbed from the session variable by another script)

Any help greatly appreciated

terfle

That is some ugly code! You might want to look at your code a little closer, you have values for your pulldown menu's but no titles. Also, where is $row_Recordset[] coming from? You are using that in your loop but not incrementing it anywhere. Before you post code at least make sure YOU know what its doing.

unset ($selected2);
if ($project == $row_Recordset2['Project_Label'])
	$selected2 = " SELECTED ";
echo "<option value=".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']." $selected2>".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']."</option>";

graemer

the dropdown stuff is unfortunately stuff that was auto created by dreamweaver (nice and easy for doing layouts, but really messy when you come to edit it). I have done most of the rest of the code myself, but am pretty new at all this, so let dreamweaver get on with that bit

the $row_Recordset2 is the result of the recordset being defined at the beginning of the page by this code:

$query_Recordset2="select Project_Label from project"
$Recordset2= mysql_query($query_Recordset2) or die (mysql_error));
$row_Recordset2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($Recordset2);

I know its messy, but it all seems to work.

If you can suggest a more elegant solution, that will allow me to give the dropdown a default value, then I am open to suggestions

terfle

I would suggest using mysql_fetch_array instead of mysql_fetch_assoc

echo '<select name="project" size="1" id="project">';
$query_Recordset2 = "select Project_Label from project";
$Recordset2= mysql_query($query_Recordset2) or die (mysql_error)); 
while ($row_Recordset2 = mysql_fetch_array($Recordset2)) {
unset ($selected);
if ($row_Recordset2['Project_Label'] == $project)
    $selected = " SELECTED ";
echo "\n\t<option value=".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']." $selected>".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']."</option>";
}
echo '</selected>';

graemer

that worked a treat

thanks alot 🙂

graemer

hmmm - well, it was working alright.

I now seem to be having an issue with the post action of the form truncating the strings after any white space

so where as the dropdown for project for example, reads "Sample Project"

after implementing the above code, the post command now only picks up the word "Sample"

It does this for any posted strings that contain white space.

any idea's?

When I substitute the original code back, it gives me the entire string, but then of course, I am back to square 1

terfle

replace

echo "\n\t<option value=".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']." $selected>".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']."</option>";

with

echo "\n\t<option value='".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']."' $selected>".$row_Recordset2['Project_Label']."</option>";