keep input values after refresh work on some but not other why

lisa007

Hi i have this form that when if user refresh should keep the values the user already entered but unfotunaly is working on some inputs and not others what i doing wrong

this one works

    <tr>
        <td class="form_field" valign='top' align='right'>Car Number </td><td width='10'  aligh='right' valign='top'> <font size='2' color='#ff0000'>*</font> </td>
        <td class="form_text">
<input type="text" name="car_number" class='text_box' id="message" value="<?php echo $_GET['car_number'];?>"/>

    </td>
</tr>

this one doesnt whats wrong with this one

    <tr>
        <td class="form_field" valign='top' align='right'>Favourite Track </td><td width='10'  aligh='right' valign='top'></td>
        <td class="form_text">
<input type="text" name="favourite_track"  class='text_box' id="favourite_track" value="<?php echo $_GET['favourite_track'];?>"/>
        </td>
    </tr>

and how can i keep the values on a drop down list such as this one??

<?php
$months = array('','January','February','March','April','May','June','July','August','September','October','November','December');
echo '<select name="month_of_birth">';
for ($i=1;$i<13;++$i) {
   echo '<option value="' . sprintf("%02d",$i) . '">' . $months[$i] . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';
echo '<select name="day_of_birth">';
for ($i=1;$i<32;++$i) {
   echo '<option value="' . sprintf("%02d",$i) . '">' . $i . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';
echo '<select name="year_of_birth">';
$year = date("Y");
for ($i = $year;$i > $year-50;$i--) {
   $s = ($i == $year)?' selected':'';
   echo '<option value="' . $i . '" ' . $s . '>' . $i . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';
?>

ixalmida

Please post the URL (or at least the variables part).

As far as drop-down lists, it might help to spell things out more clearly:

for($some_value = $whatever; $some_value < $max_value; $some_value++)
  {
  $selected = "";
  if($some_value == $some_other_value)
    $selected = "selected";
  echo "<option value='$some_value' $selected>$some_value</option>";
  }

Even if you are the only person who ever reads your code, it is good practice to use long, descriptive variable names and avoid shorthand conditionals. Most developers will tell you that after a few thousand lines of code and a day or two away, they'll look back and not remember most of what they wrote. Don't make troubleshooting code harder on yourself later.