show selected value for drop-downs in dynamic menus

toodi4

I frequently work with forms where menus are pulled from a database. When a user enters data in the form and then saves it, if it is retrieved later, the form shows the saved data, including the drop-down menus. The way I normally do this in php is to first retrieve the data for the saved from. Then I create the menus and within the loop of creating the menus I simply add the word "selected" into the results row which equals the saved option on the form.

In other words, within the results loop I'll have something like:

$options .= <option value=$option_id $selected>$option_description</option>";

and the $selected value will be determined by a preceding statement like:

If ($option_id == $saved_id)
{ $selected = "selected";} else {$selected = "";}

The problem I'm facing now is that I am working with a form that returns multiple rows of results. (kind of like have multiple forms on one page) Each row has 4 drop-down menus. So I can't create the menus after returning the results rows because the menus have to appear within the rows. I tried running the menu creation queries within the results rows, but this drastically slows things down. (if I have 12 rows of results, this means that the 4 drop down menus have to be created 12 times each)

I'm just curious if others have dealt with this issue and what solution can be suggested. Thanks!

halojoy

Question is
what does 'slow down'??

In my experience PHP scripts are very fast.
Usually we wouldnt notice any delay at all at a modern web server.

Put in some script timers. And make an investigation what takes the time.
It is simple and easy.

$t[]=microtime(true);
Below is the code I use. Very easy to make test with.

Makes print out of each time interval of array t[] in this format:

1 - 0.123456
2 - 1.435600
etc
etc

Universal Script Timer
by halojoy 2007

<?php
// Universal Script Timer
// by halojoy 2007


$t[]=microtime(true);

// Load $data from file, 100kB
$file='files/100kb.dat';

$t[]=microtime(true);

// $pass, random password key, 16 chars
$pass="0123456789ABCDEF";

$t[]=microtime(true);



// Print out each time interval
echo '<pre>';
for($i=1;$i<count($t);$i++){ 
  echo $i.' - '.str_pad(round($t[$i]-$t[$i-1],6),8,'0').'<br>';
}
echo '</pre>';

?>

liquorvicar

Not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve but could you solve it by loading the menu options into an array at the top of the script, then for each row you output, just cycle through the array and add selected at the relevant point.

halojoy

liquorvicar wrote:
Not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve but could you solve it by loading the menu options into an array at the top of the script, then for each row you output, just cycle through the array and add selected at the relevant point.

Also you can try using output buffer.
This means only one final output at the end of output buffer.

<?php

// start output buffering
ob_start();

// do the job with dropdown menus and database
// and echo rows


// send contents of output buffer to browser
ob_end_flush();

?>