if statement in select, option

[vertmonkee]

I have a form that sends back to itself and checks for errors or missing fields. I have the countries in a pull down list and at present when ever the user returns to the page the country has reset itself to the first option.

I have tried to add an if statement in so if the value = the $_POST value the option will be selected. But I keep getting errors.

Here is the code so far

$sql = ("SELECT * FROM country");
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
extract ($row);
echo "<option value=\"$country_id\" " .
     if($country_id == $_POST['country']) { 
	     "selected" .
     } 
     ">$country_name</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

If anyone has any ideas it will be greatly aprreciated.
Thanks

[thorpe]

 $sql = ("SELECT * FROM country");
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
extract ($row);
$tmp = "<option value=\"$country_id\" ";
     if($country_id == $_POST['country']) {
         $tmp .= "selected";
     }
     $tmp .= ">$country_name</option>";
     echo $tmp;
}
echo "</select>";