[RESOLVED] PHP and drop-down lists

john010117

I want a simple HTML drop-down list like this:

<select name="select_1">
    <option name="option_1" value="option_1" selected="true">
    <option name="option_2" value="option_2" selected="false">
</select>

to be able to automatically select a value according to a value in a table in the database. For example, if a MySQL table has a field named "field_1", and one of the rows has a value of "option_1" in that field, I want the list (using PHP of course) to automatically select the option name "option_1". How would I go about doing that?

I have way too many lists/options to do a simple if statement. Any ideas?

Roger_Ramjet

So where do all those options come from then?

john010117

What do you mean by that? The option names are the same as the field names in the database.

Roger_Ramjet

I mean, where do all the options in the select list come from?

john010117

It's first shown to the user. It's not related to any other forms.

EDIT: I solved the problem by making a function that echo's the values and an array with all the options in it.

Crowly

This is how i usually do it when i want a option selected based on a value from the database. The select/sql part is not that important, just to show the connection.

//code taking from one of my scripts

$query="SELECT tekst,header,id,DATE_FORMAT(fdato,'%d.%m.%Y') fdato,DATE_FORMAT(tdato,'%d.%m.%Y') tdato,kurssted,kurstittel 
FROM aktiviteter 
WHERE id=".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['i'])." AND bnavn='".$_SESSION['bruker']."'";
$row=mysql_fetch_row(mysql_query($query));

//some other code

$sql="SELECT kurstittel 
FROM kurstilbud
WHERE type='kurs' AND brukernavn='".$_SESSION['bruker']."'";
$res=mysql_query($sql);

//building the select, important part
echo "<select name=\"something\">";
while ($r=mysql_fetch_row($res))
{
    echo "<option value=\"".$r[0]."\" ";

// $r[0] is the current option value to be printed
// $row[6] is the value from the database, 
//if they are the same print out the selected part so this option will be selected.

if ($r[0]==$row[6]) echo "selected=\"selected\" ";
  echo ">".$r[0]."</option>\n";
}
echo "</select>";