Drop down menu &quot;value&quot; issues

Drop down menu "value" issues

bradsssp

I am creating a page where you can select an existing user from a drop down box and then edit that users information(username, password, email etc...). I currently have the drop down box that prints the users first and last name in as "options" in the menu. I am running into issues assigning a "value" to each option that actually represents the "option" that was chosen. Am i going about this wrong? help please.

<?php
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result)) //extracts the results of the mysql query
{
extract($rows);
?>
<option value="[COLOR="Red"]syntax for variable [/COLOR]"><?php echo "$lastname, $firstname"; ?></option>
<?php
}//closes while loop
?>
</select>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<form action="edituser.php" method="post">
<input type="submit" name="edit" value="Edit User">
</form>
</body>
</html>
<?php

Kudose

Your HTML is horribly malformed.

To answer your question though:

I assume you have an ID associated with each user, you would generally put the user's ID in the value of the option.

<?php

$query = mysql_query("SELECT `id`, `first`, `last` FROM `users` ORDER BY `last` ASC, `first` ASC");
$select = '<select name="user">';
while(($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)){
	$select .= '<option value="'.$data['id'].'">'.$data['last'].', '.$data['first'].'</option>';
}
$select .= '</select>';

echo $select; // when you want to use it

bradsssp

ok i cleaned my code up a little bit. Im now to the point where on "post" if i simply "echo $_POST['user']" then i should be able to see the "value" of the option selected in the drop down box... emphasis on SHOULD, because the my value is blank.

<?php
echo "<select name='users'>"; 
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result)) 	
	{
	extract($rows);	 //points to array to be read 
	echo "<option value=$id>$id, $lastname, $firstname</option>";
	}

 echo "</select>";
?>

and...

<?php
if (isset($_POST['edit']))
{
	echo $_POST['users'];
}

Weedpacket

How does your form look, now?

bradsssp

The form has always "looked" how i want it to, it just does'nt function how i want it to.

djjjozsi

$result is empty?
use mysql_num_rows to know your table has users.
did you handled the mysql errors ? mysql_error()

see your source code, undifined variables can break your dropdown's structure.

extract in your while function is not a good idea, you would overwrite your previous important values.

use htmlspecialchars if you use entries from a database. What if i use a script name as my firstname ?

use quotes:

echo "<option value=\"{$id}\">{$id}, {$lastname}, {$firstname}</option>\n";