[RESOLVED] php form connundrum!!

[carlpj52]

I’m having a problem I hope someone can help me settle. The following snippet was taken from the “user modification” page of my site where users can locate a pre-existing ticket and modify same. As you can see, the value is already pre-set depending which ticket has been called from mysql database and alternative value selections have been hard coded:

<p>Mechanic:
<SELECT name=\"name_id\">
<OPTION value=\"\">-- Select One --</OPTION>";
$name_array = array("Bill Griffin","Joe Chambers","Dave Tooley","Dave Sykes","Carl Johnson","Sherry Angelucci","Heather Merrill","Chuck Roseman");
foreach ($name_array as $name) {
if ($name == "$name") {
echo "<OPTION value=\"$name\"
selected>$name</OPTION>";
} else {
echo "<OPTION value=\"$name\">$name</OPTION>";
}
}
echo "</SELECT></p>

What I would like to do is instead of hard coding alternative value selections is pre-fill alternative value selections from database and I came up with this:

<p>Mechanic:
<SELECT name=\"name\">
<OPTION value=\"\">-- Select One --</OPTION>";

$sql = "SELECT name FROM personal_info ORDER BY name ASC";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());

if (!result) {
echo "An Error occurred connecting to Database!";
} else {

$name_array = mysql_fetch_row($result);
foreach($name_array as $name) {
if ($name == "$name") {
echo "<OPTION value=\"$name\"
selected>$name</OPTION>";
} else {
echo "<OPTION value=\"$name\">$name</OPTION>";
}
}
}


echo "</SELECT></p>

What I get is the form with no preselected value depending on the ticket and only the first row from the database table row comes back on the form. What am I doing wrong? Sure would appreciate anybody’s help!

[bradgrafelman]

Just FYI, this board has special [ PHP] tags for posting PHP code... make sure you wrap your PHP code with these tags for readability! Now, let's dive into your code:

1. This line:

   if (!result) {

   has a missing $ .

2. I don't understand this line:

   if ($name == "$name") {

   if the name is the same as... the name? This statement is always true. What are you trying to do here?

3. This line:

   $name_array = mysql_fetch_row($result);

   will only retrieve the first row from the result set. You need to loop through the result set and add names onto the array, like so:

   $name_array = array();
   while($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
   $name_array[] = $data['name'];
   }

[carlpj52]

Thank You bradgrafelman for your help!
Your solution worked perfectly! :p