PHP beginner DB design questions

[WestChi]

I am trying to make a database driven website about a collecting hobby. The problem I am having is how do you design it properly.

Example:
Table A
companyID, companyName, companyBio

Table B
itemID, itemName, colorID, price

Table C
colorID, colorName

How do I design the input and output forms so that instead of having to know the companyID and colorID for an item they can select the companyName or see the colorName on the query results form?

Thanks

[jazz_snob]

Create a hash of id => labels, like maybe $companies then you have the options in a select element like this where value is the ID and the content of the tag is the label for that company;

<select name="company_id">
  <option value="1">Company whose ID is One</option>
  <option value="2">Label for company 2</option>
  <!-- etc -->
</select>

[WestChi]

Thanks, I saw that in some basic forms, but what do I do when I get to say 1,000 companies. Thats a lot of coding. Is there a way to query that? also what to do on the result side?