population drop down box

[nuttynibbles]

hi, i've a page which allows user to edit their particulars. It has a drop down box which populates with data from mysql database. here is my code:

$getQuery = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table");

echo "<select name=\"name\">";
echo "<option size =30 selected>---Select Medium---</option>";
if( mysql_num_rows($getQuery ) )
{
while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($getQuery ) )
{
echo "<option>$row[medium]</option>";
}
}

after populating, I would like to set the default value which the user selected b4.. how do i do that?

[devinemke]

in the example below i am assuming that you are storing the user's data in an array called $user_data. tweak as necessary...

$result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM table') or exit(mysql_error());

echo '<select name="name">';
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
	echo '<option value="' . $row['medium'] . '"';
	if ($row['medium'] == $user_data['medium']) {echo ' selected';}
	echo '>' . $row['medium'] . '</option>';
}

[nuttynibbles]

hey been busy. Yea it works. tks dude..

[nuttynibbles]

erm I understand if i wanna keep a value in a textbox, i used <input type="text" ...value="<?php echo $_REQUEST['txtbox']; ?>">.. this ensure that if the webpage refreshed, i still have the data display.. how do i do the same thing for drop down box?

[big_nerd]

nuttynibbles,

If the page is refreshed? as in F5 (in internet exploder)?

The code that devinemike gave you does the same idea...

 if ($row['medium'] == $user_data['medium']) {echo ' selected';} 

if it isnt working, try making it like this:

 if ($row['medium'] == $user_data['medium']) {echo ' selected=selected';} 

Not sure what is proper standards, but that's what I've seen used.

[nuttynibbles]

oh not f5. is an edit info page. so let say when user first sign up, mayb he's frm china so he select country china from drop down box..then when he wanna edit his info, mayb he now decides he prefer to be frm america, so he choose that. But if he leaves one of the mandatory fields out, the page will need to process and revert back with the error msg, that is when the drop down box could not retain it previous chosen value.

[Roger_Ramjet]

You actually need a strategy that caters to the retention and display of data whatever the circumstances. This is easily achieved through session vars.

1 set up empty session vars for form fields
2 check for form data and populate session vars
3 or check for existing data and populate from db
4 set value of form elements to these vars so that:
a) when empty they result in blank form fields
b) when populated from db the form displays them
c) when populated from post vars they in turn are displayed

session_start();

// set session data function
function set_sess($array) {
   foreach ($array as $key=>$val) {
      $_SESSION[$key] = $val;
   }
}

// set up empty form
$formary = array('field1'=>'', 'field2'=>'', 'field3'=>'');
set_sess($formary);

// populate from db
set_sess($row);

// populate from form input
set_sess($_POST);

// display form
echo '<form>
  <input type="text" name="field1" value="' . $_SESSION['field1'] . '" />
  <input type="text" name="field2" value="' . $_SESSION['field2'] . '" />
  <input type="text" name="field3" value="' . $_SESSION['field3'] . '" />
  </form>';

I'll leave it to you to code the test for form submit, db query, etc.

[nuttynibbles]

hey i solved it. Tks to you all guys. what I did is create a session to get value from the drop down box. after which i check if session is not null(means user has selected a different value in editpage.php), i set it to selected..

html...

$SESSION['selectMed'] = $POST["drpDwnMed"];

function displayDropDwn()
{

echo "<select name=\"drpDwnMed\" id=\"dropDwnBox\">";
		echo "<option selected value='0'>---Select Medium---</option>";
		if( mysql_num_rows($getPaintQuery) )
		{
			while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($getPaintQuery) )
			{
				//echo "<option>$row[medium]</option>";
				echo '<option value="' . $row['medium'] . '"';

			if($_SESSION['selectMed']!= NULL)
			{
				if ($row['medium'] == $_SESSION['selectMed'])
				{						
					echo ' selected';						
				}					
			}
			else				
			{
				if ($row['medium'] == $prodMed)
				{						
					echo ' selected';
				}
			}
			echo '>' . $row['medium']. '</option>'; 
		}
	}
}

[big_nerd]

If it is resolved please don't forget to mark it as such (found under Thread Tools).

Thanks