[RESOLVED] help with input type select in php

[rkeppert]

I finally have gotten the values from the db table to appear on the update page, however I have run into a problem....

Where I have select lists for options like the state etc.... I put the entire dropdown list in the php code for the state, however when the page loads, it displays "Please Select"

How do I get the proper value to display?

thanks

Rob

[Neumy]

Can you provide your code so we can see what exactly you are doing? Thanks.

Since I can't guess on what exactly you are doing, I'll throw this in here just to give you an idea on what I think you might be asking for. There are many ways to do this ... this is just one way (note: I used my own DB call - not provided):

$selectDisplay="";
$query = "SELECT `infoID`,`state` FROM `RandomInfo`";
foreach($db->getRows($query) as $key=>$val)
{
	$selectDisplay .= "<option value='{$val['infoID']}'>{$val['state']}</option>";
}

echo "<select name='state'>";
echo $selectDisplay;
echo "</select>";

[rkeppert]

I think there is a better way to write this, but i'm not sure... It does display the pull down box, but does not automatically change the selection to the one that is in the db table....

   echo '<td>','<b><u>STATE: </u></b>','<br><br>','<select name="state" id="state" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)" value='.$row['state'].'> <option value="">Please Select</option><option value="AL">Alabama (AL)</option><option value="AK">Alaska (AK)</option><option value="AR">Arkansas (AR)</option><option value="AZ">Arizona (AZ)</option><option value="CA">California (CA)</option><option value="CO">Colorado (CO)</option><option value="CT">Connecticut (CT)</option><option value="DC">District of Columbia (DC)</option><option value="DE">Delaware (DE)</option><option value="FL">Florida (FL)</option><option value="GA">Georgia (GA)</option><option value="HI">Hawaii (HI)</option><option value="IA">Iowa (IA)</option><option value="ID">Idaho (ID)</option><option value="IL">Illinois (IL)</option><option value="IN">Indiana (IN)</option><option value="KS">Kansas (KS)</option><option value="KY">Kentucky (KY)</option><option value="LA">Louisiana (LA)</option><option value="MA">Massachusetts (MA)</option><option value="MD">Maryland (MD)</option><option value="ME">Maine (ME)</option><option value="MI">Michigan (MI)</option><option value="MN">Minnesota (MN)</option><option value="MO">Missouri (MO)</option><option value="MS">Mississippi (MS)</option><option value="MT">Montana (MT)</option><option value="NC">North Carolina (NC)</option><option value="ND">North Dakota (ND)</option><option value="NE">Nebraska (NE)</option><option value="NH">Hew Hampshire (NH)</option><option value="NJ">New Jersey (NJ)</option><option value="NM">New Mexico (NM)</option><option value="NY">New York (NY)</option><option value="OH">Ohio (OH)</option><option value="OK">Oklahoma (OK)</option><option value="OR">Oregon (OR)</option><option value="PA">Pennsylvania (PA)</option><option value="RI">Rhode Island (RI)</option><option value="SC">South Carolina (SC)</option><option value="SD">South Dakota (SD)</option><option value="TN">Tennessee (TN)</option><option value="TX">Texas (TX)</option><option value="UT">Utah (UT)</option><option value="VA">Virginia (VA)</option><option value="VT">Vermont (VT)</option><option value="WA">Washington (WA)</option><option value="WI">Wisconsin (WI)</option><option value="WY">Wyoming (WY)</option></select>','</td>';

[leatherback]

Hi rkeppert,

What you posted it the output from the database. What we would need to give a specific answer is the code that generates the drop-down.

In short:

When you are retrieving the options from the table, and loop through them to create ech <option>..</option> set you need to check the current value against the value that you have in the database for that record. When you have reached that value, you have to output an <option ... selected ...> ... </option>

[rkeppert]

That's what I'm not sure how to do....

leatherback wrote:

Hi rkeppert,

What you posted it the output from the database. What we would need to give a specific answer is the code that generates the drop-down.

In short:

When you are retrieving the options from the table, and loop through them to create ech <option>..</option> set you need to check the current value against the value that you have in the database for that record. When you have reached that value, you have to output an <option ... selected ...> ... </option>

[Neumy]

Hi rkeppert,

Again, this is really hard to help you without seeing some of your code. Below is another speculation on mine based on the comments above, but there are hundreds of ways of doing this depending on your variables/setup/DB/etc.

In the example below, I've hardcoded the 50 states in an array since you will most likely not need to pull this generic information from the DB. I've also am querying the DB for a "generic-user-row" and pulling the state. The foreach loop will loop through the state-array and build the select and set the SELECTED element based on the DB results.

$userID="randomUserID"; // assuming you're pulling this from SESSION/POST/GET 
$states = array('AL'=>'Alabama (AL)','AK'=>'Alaska (AK)','AR'=>'Arkansas (AR)','AZ'=>'Arizona (AZ)','CA'=>'California (CA)','CO'=>'Colorado (CO)','CT'=>'Connecticut (CT)','DC'=>'District of Columbia (DC)','DE'=>'Delaware (DE)','FL'=>'Florida (FL)','GA'=>'Georgia (GA)','HI'=>'Hawaii (HI)','IA'=>'Iowa (IA)','ID'=>'Idaho (ID)','IL'=>'Illinois (IL)','IN'=>'Indiana (IN)','KS'=>'Kansas (KS)','KY'=>'Kentucky (KY)','LA'=>'Louisiana (LA)','MA'=>'Massachusetts (MA)','MD'=>'Maryland (MD)','ME'=>'Maine (ME)','MI'=>'Michigan (MI)','MN'=>'Minnesota (MN)','MO'=>'Missouri (MO)','MS'=>'Mississippi (MS)','MT'=>'Montana (MT)','NC'=>'North Carolina (NC)','ND'=>'North Dakota (ND)','NE'=>'Nebraska (NE)','NH'=>'Hew Hampshire (NH)','NJ'=>'New Jersey (NJ)','NM'=>'New Mexico (NM)','NY'=>'New York (NY)','OH'=>'Ohio (OH)','OK'=>'Oklahoma (OK)','OR'=>'Oregon (OR)','PA'=>'Pennsylvania (PA)','RI'=>'Rhode Island (RI)','SC'=>'South Carolina (SC)','SD'=>'South Dakota (SD)','TN'=>'Tennessee (TN)','TX'=>'Texas (TX)','UT'=>'Utah (UT)','VA'=>'Virginia (VA)','VT'=>'Vermont (VT)','WA'=>'Washington (WA)','WI'=>'Wisconsin (WI)','WY'=>'Wyoming (WY)');

$state="";
$query = "SELECT `state` FROM `RandomInfo` WHERE `userID`=$userID;";
if($row=$db->getRow($query)) // expecting only 1 row as $userID is unique key
{
	$state = $row['state'];
}

$selectState=""; $selected="";
foreach($states as $key=>$val)
{
	if($key==$state) $selected = " selected";
	$selectState .= "<option value='$key'$selected>$val</option>";
	$selected="";
}

echo "<select name='state' id='state' onKeyUp='highlight(event)' onClick='highlight(event)'>";
echo "<option value=''>Please Select</option>";
echo $selectState;
echo "</select>";

[rkeppert]

First, thanks to everyone on here for all the help! This is a great resource.

And sorry, I meant to post the code with my last response.... here it is:

On the insert record page I have it coded where the state is selected, and the output to db is the 2 letter abbreviation. And if I am reading the code correctly, it's looking for the 2 letter abbreviation.

I am going to try to implement the code in the last post.... If anyone thinks of something else, let me know please.

session_start();

ini_set('display_errors', true);
error_reporting( E_ALL );

include ('db_conn.php');

$db = mysql_connect($servhost, $servuser, $servpwd);
if ( !$db ){
    exit( "Connection Failed" );
}
$dbn = ($dbsname);
if(!mysql_select_db($dbn, $db) ){
    exit( "DB Selection Failed" );
}


$recnum_id = isset($_GET['recnum']) ? $_GET['recnum'] : '';

if( !empty($recnum_id) ){
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM $tabname WHERE recnum = '$recnum_id'";
}
else{
}

$srchdn = mysql_query($sql);

$all_rows = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($srchdn)){
    $all_rows[] = $row;
}

there's a foreach stataement somewhere in the beginning of the table code (lol i forgot to copy that part.)

   echo '<tr>';
   echo '<td>','<b><u>LAST NAME: </u></b>','<br><br>','<input name="lastname" type="text" id="lastname" size="30" maxlength="30" onChange="javascript:this.value=this.value.toUpperCase();" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)" value='.$row['lastname'].'>','</td>';
   echo '<td>','<b><u>FIRST NAME: </u></b>','<br><br>','<input name="firstname" type="text" id="firstname" size="30" maxlength="30" onChange="javascript:this.value=this.value.toUpperCase();" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)" value='.$row['firstname'].'>','</td>';
   echo '<td>','<b><u>MIDDLE NAME: </u></b>','<br><br>','<input name="midname" type="text" id="midname" size="30" maxlength="30" onChange="javascript:this.value=this.value.toUpperCase();" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)" value='.$row['midname'].'>','</td>';
   echo '<td>','<b><u>A.K.A.: </u></b>','<br><br>','<input name="akaname" type="text" id="akaname" size="30" maxlength="30" onChange="javascript:this.value=this.value.toUpperCase();" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)" value='.$row['akaname'].'>','</td>';
   echo '<td>','</td>';
   echo '</tr>';

Thanks again everyone!

Rob

[rkeppert]

Ok I modified the code slightly because of a few variables...

'state' is already pulled from the db when the record is accessed....

here is how I modified it.. still doesn't work right tho....

$states = array('AL'=>'Alabama (AL)','AK'=>'Alaska (AK)','AR'=>'Arkansas (AR)','AZ'=>'Arizona (AZ)','CA'=>'California (CA)','CO'=>'Colorado (CO)','CT'=>'Connecticut (CT)','DC'=>'District of Columbia (DC)','DE'=>'Delaware (DE)','FL'=>'Florida (FL)','GA'=>'Georgia (GA)','HI'=>'Hawaii (HI)','IA'=>'Iowa (IA)','ID'=>'Idaho (ID)','IL'=>'Illinois (IL)','IN'=>'Indiana (IN)','KS'=>'Kansas (KS)','KY'=>'Kentucky (KY)','LA'=>'Louisiana (LA)','MA'=>'Massachusetts (MA)','MD'=>'Maryland (MD)','ME'=>'Maine (ME)','MI'=>'Michigan (MI)','MN'=>'Minnesota (MN)','MO'=>'Missouri (MO)','MS'=>'Mississippi (MS)','MT'=>'Montana (MT)','NC'=>'North Carolina (NC)','ND'=>'North Dakota (ND)','NE'=>'Nebraska (NE)','NH'=>'Hew Hampshire (NH)','NJ'=>'New Jersey (NJ)','NM'=>'New Mexico (NM)','NY'=>'New York (NY)','OH'=>'Ohio (OH)','OK'=>'Oklahoma (OK)','OR'=>'Oregon (OR)','PA'=>'Pennsylvania (PA)','RI'=>'Rhode Island (RI)','SC'=>'South Carolina (SC)','SD'=>'South Dakota (SD)','TN'=>'Tennessee (TN)','TX'=>'Texas (TX)','UT'=>'Utah (UT)','VA'=>'Virginia (VA)','VT'=>'Vermont (VT)','WA'=>'Washington (WA)','WI'=>'Wisconsin (WI)','WY'=>'Wyoming (WY)');

{
	$state = $row['state'];
}

$selectState=""; $selected="";
foreach($states as $key=>$val)
{
	if($key==$state) $selected = " selected";
	$selectState .= "<option value='$key'$selected>$val</option>";
	$selected="";
}

   echo '<td>','<b><u>STATE: </u></b>','<br><br>','<select name="state" id="state" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)"><option value="">Please Select</option>', $selectstate ,'</select>','</td>';

the above 'echo' format is how the entire page is done...

also I have posted the code from the insert page as to how the selection is:

<select name="state" id="state" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)">
        <option value="">Please Select</option>
        <option value="AL">Alabama (AL)</option>
	<option value="AK">Alaska (AK)</option>
        <option value="AR">Arkansas (AR)</option>
        <option value="AZ">Arizona (AZ)</option>
        <option value="CA">California (CA)</option>
        <option value="CO">Colorado (CO)</option>
        <option value="CT">Connecticut (CT)</option>
        <option value="DC">District of Columbia (DC)</option>
        <option value="DE">Delaware (DE)</option>
        <option value="FL">Florida (FL)</option>
        <option value="GA">Georgia (GA)</option>
	<option value="HI">Hawaii (HI)</option>
        <option value="IA">Iowa (IA)</option>
        <option value="ID">Idaho (ID)</option>
        <option value="IL">Illinois (IL)</option>
        <option value="IN">Indiana (IN)</option>
        <option value="KS">Kansas (KS)</option>
        <option value="KY">Kentucky (KY)</option>
        <option value="LA">Louisiana (LA)</option>
        <option value="MA">Massachusetts (MA)</option>
        <option value="MD">Maryland (MD)</option>
        <option value="ME">Maine (ME)</option>
        <option value="MI">Michigan (MI)</option>
        <option value="MN">Minnesota (MN)</option>
        <option value="MO">Missouri (MO)</option>
        <option value="MS">Mississippi (MS)</option>
        <option value="MT">Montana (MT)</option>
        <option value="NC">North Carolina (NC)</option>
        <option value="ND">North Dakota (ND)</option>
        <option value="NE">Nebraska (NE)</option>
        <option value="NH">Hew Hampshire (NH)</option>
        <option value="NJ">New Jersey (NJ)</option>
        <option value="NM">New Mexico (NM)</option>
        <option value="NY">New York (NY)</option>
        <option value="OH">Ohio (OH)</option>
        <option value="OK">Oklahoma (OK)</option>
        <option value="OR">Oregon (OR)</option>
        <option value="PA">Pennsylvania (PA)</option>
        <option value="RI">Rhode Island (RI)</option>
        <option value="SC">South Carolina (SC)</option>
        <option value="SD">South Dakota (SD)</option>
        <option value="TN">Tennessee (TN)</option>
        <option value="TX">Texas (TX)</option>
        <option value="UT">Utah (UT)</option>
        <option value="VA">Virginia (VA)</option>
        <option value="VT">Vermont (VT)</option>
        <option value="WA">Washington (WA)</option>
        <option value="WI">Wisconsin (WI)</option>
        <option value="WY">Wyoming (WY)</option>
      </select>

[Neumy]

Your SQL statement "SELECT * FROM $tabname WHERE recnum = '$recnum_id'" is pulling EVERYTHING from that table for that one record. I'm going to guess that somewhere in that table is a state field where you are storing the State you want displayed.

You'll need to motify your "$all_rows[] = $row;" line to store the info you want. If you do a "var_dump($all_rows);" after your while loop, you will see that the array is very messy, and digging the state info from that will be equally messy.

My suggestion is to define exactly what you want to pull from the DB in your SQL statement.
eg: "SELECT state,name,genderFROM $tabname WHERE recnum='$recnum_id';"

That way you can call each entry seperately in your while loop.
eg:

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($srchdn)){
   $all_rows['state'] = $row['state'];
   $all_rows['name'] = $row['name'];
   $all_rows['gender'] = $row['gender'];
}

Hopefully there is only one row in the DB; that way you can use my old foreach loop with the $all_rows['state'] variable instead of my $state variable.

$selectState=""; $selected="";
foreach($states as $key=>$val)
{
	if($key==$all_rows['state']) $selected = " selected";
	$selectState .= "<option value='$key'$selected>$val</option>";
	$selected="";
}

Let me know how it works out.

[rkeppert]

The code I am posting below partially works.... It populates the dropdown box with Please Select and Wyoming (WY) only... put the $row['state'] variable in on a blank line to make sure it was pulling the correct information from the record, which it does...

It does not completely populate the dropdown list with all the states options, nor does it select the correct state...

$states="";
$states = array('AL'=>'Alabama (AL)','AK'=>'Alaska (AK)','AR'=>'Arkansas (AR)','AZ'=>'Arizona (AZ)','CA'=>'California (CA)','CO'=>'Colorado (CO)','CT'=>'Connecticut (CT)','DC'=>'District of Columbia (DC)','DE'=>'Delaware (DE)','FL'=>'Florida (FL)','GA'=>'Georgia (GA)','HI'=>'Hawaii (HI)','IA'=>'Iowa (IA)','ID'=>'Idaho (ID)','IL'=>'Illinois (IL)','IN'=>'Indiana (IN)','KS'=>'Kansas (KS)','KY'=>'Kentucky (KY)','LA'=>'Louisiana (LA)','MA'=>'Massachusetts (MA)','MD'=>'Maryland (MD)','ME'=>'Maine (ME)','MI'=>'Michigan (MI)','MN'=>'Minnesota (MN)','MO'=>'Missouri (MO)','MS'=>'Mississippi (MS)','MT'=>'Montana (MT)','NC'=>'North Carolina (NC)','ND'=>'North Dakota (ND)','NE'=>'Nebraska (NE)','NH'=>'Hew Hampshire (NH)','NJ'=>'New Jersey (NJ)','NM'=>'New Mexico (NM)','NY'=>'New York (NY)','OH'=>'Ohio (OH)','OK'=>'Oklahoma (OK)','OR'=>'Oregon (OR)','PA'=>'Pennsylvania (PA)','RI'=>'Rhode Island (RI)','SC'=>'South Carolina (SC)','SD'=>'South Dakota (SD)','TN'=>'Tennessee (TN)','TX'=>'Texas (TX)','UT'=>'Utah (UT)','VA'=>'Virginia (VA)','VT'=>'Vermont (VT)','WA'=>'Washington (WA)','WI'=>'Wisconsin (WI)','WY'=>'Wyoming (WY)');

{
	$state1 = $row['state'];
}

$selectState=""; $selected="";
foreach($states as $key=>$val)
{
	if($key==$state1) $selected = " selected";
	$selectState = "<option value='$key'$selected>$val</option>";
}

   echo '<td>','<b><u>STATE: </u></b>','<br><br>','<select name="state" id="state" onKeyUp="highlight(event)" onClick="highlight(event)"><option value="">Please Select</option>';
   echo $selectState;
   echo '</select>','</td>';

Thanks.

Rob.

[Neumy]

Two things:

1) Where are you grabbing your state from the DB? In your code, you have a pointless bracket with "$state1 = $row['state'];". I think you'll have to add your SQL statement (or whatever you are using to get your selected state) above the brackets.

// insert some sort of SQL command here
{
	$state1 = $row['state'];
}

2) The point of the variable $selected is to populate the <option> tag with the word selected so it is the one displayed. You'll have to make sure that variable is "reset" to blank after you find the correct selection.
-edit- I almost forgot, you'll also need to concatinate the $selectState variable each time through the foreach loop. Make sure you add the period at the beginning of the equal sign; as below.

$selectState=""; $selected="";
foreach($states as $key=>$val)
{
	if($key==$state1) $selected = " selected";
	$selectState .= "<option value='$key'$selected>$val</option>";
	$selected = ""; // add this line to reset the variable after you use it
}

Good luck.

[rkeppert]

Here is my db connect code and record access:

session_start();

ini_set('display_errors', true); 
error_reporting( E_ALL ); 

include ('db_conn.php');

$db = mysql_connect($servhost, $servuser, $servpwd);
if ( !$db ){
    exit( "Connection Failed" );
}
$dbn = ($dbsname);
if(!mysql_select_db($dbn, $db) ){
    exit( "DB Selection Failed" );
}

$recnum_id = isset($_GET['recnum']) ? $_GET['recnum'] : '';

if( !empty($recnum_id) ){
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM $tabname WHERE recnum = '$recnum_id'";
}
else{
}

$srchdn = mysql_query($sql);

$all_rows = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($srchdn)){
    $all_rows[] = $row;
}

Where the line:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM $tabname WHERE recnum = 'recnum_id'";

pulls the selected record (only 1 record) from the db and loads all the fields into an empty array.

and by specifying $row['state']

means the value in the db for the state is already loaded...

As for the other section of code, I will try that suggestion in the morning.... I hope that it will populate the dropdown box with all the values in the $states array and set the selected value to the value contained in the db record.

Thanks

Rob