drop down select box has no cigars in it ;(

Jaady

Hello all,

I have to tell you, I have spent the day on google looking for answers and managed to purple out all the links that talks about select box and in youtube lol. I have read the section of select boxes in 4 different books and I;m still not getting any luck. so I am posting here as a last resort if there anyone who could help me figure out this thing.

this the function that makes most sense for me since I try to stick to PDO. it is part of a tutorial series that I purchased but unfortunately like many tutorial they don't explain the whole thing and leave some important bits out that you need to figure out yourself. so here is the script that I picked up below and the input in the form is below. Just to clarify: I havent' put the whole page in but I assure you that I have an include_once() connection to my database and it works fine. 2- the lad in the tutorial closes the function with: // closes the database connection $dbh = NULL; I have no idea where that variable come from, it doesn't show it on the tutorial. my exit to my database should be $db=NULL; but then I;m thinking if I close the connection to the DB how am I going to get anything in my form below? and then 3- in the form the select input box has a name of [country1] again I have no idea where that comes from and where else it is referred. I;'m not really understand this part to be honest. at this point I have read and seen so many different examples and tutorial my head is spinning and I can't make sense of anything lol. can anyone help me get some logic out of this?

function buildOptions($array)
				{
						$output = '';
						foreach ($array as $key => $value) 
						{
							$output .= '<option value="' . $key . '">' . $value . '</option>' . PHP_EOL;
						}
						return $output;
						}

				$list = array();
				$sql = 'SELECT `id`, `building` FROM `buildings`;';
				foreach ($pdo->query($sql, PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) as $row) {
				$list[$row['id']] = $row['building'];
			}

<select name="data[country1]" >
							<!-- Use the output from database to build a list of options -->
							<?php echo buildOptions($list); ?>
						</select>

johanafm

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
I havent' put the whole page in

Having an exact copy of some version of the code and having something else is quite different. Not necessarily bad from a learning perspective, but changing things usually leads to having to change more things.

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
2- the lad in the tutorial closes the function with: // closes the database connection $dbh = NULL;

I hope that actually looked like

// closes the database connection
$dbh = NULL;

rather than what you posted. Otherwise it's a comment claiming to do stuff with no actual code being executed.

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
I have no idea where that variable come from, it doesn't show it on the tutorial

Are you certain they did not show that in an earlier example and by now assumes that you have understood that part and that you have it working?

By the way, what happens in your

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
include_once() connection to my database

and also, why is it [man]included[/man] rather than [man]required[/man]?

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
but then I;m thinking if I close the connection to the DB how am I going to get anything in my form below?

Because you first fetch what you need. Then you use whater you fetched later. The principle is the same as calling your sister and ask what she wants for her birthday. When she has told you, you hang up the phone before you go shopping.

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
and then 3- in the form the select input box has a name of [country1]

When posting a form field, the name attribute value becomes a key in the $POST array in php (or $GET in case of a get request). That is, if a form had been sent where the form field contained name="data", then there would be a corresponding entry in $POST['data']. Now it will instead reside in $POST['data']['country1'].

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
again I have no idea where that comes from

By choice. Much like your own name was once chosen.

Jaady;11037393 wrote:
and where else it is referred.

by the script receiving the post (unless of course it is a get request)

Do yourself the favor of formatting your code sensibly. What you had in your post looked as if everything belonged to the function. If I hadn't gone to the trouble of formatting it for you, I'd have simply given you error corrections based on reading it wrong. Moreover, when you are asking for help, you are far less likely to get it if you post unformatted code.

function buildOptions($array)
{
    $output = '';
    foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
        $output .= '<option value="' . $key . '">' . $value . '</option>' . PHP_EOL;
    }
    return $output;
}

$list = array();
$sql  = 'SELECT `id`, `building` FROM `buildings`;';
foreach ($pdo->query($sql, PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) as $row) {
    $list[$row['id']] = $row['building'];
}

But where does $pdo come from?

Jaady

Having an exact copy of some version of the code and having something else is quite different. Not necessarily bad from a learning perspective, but changing things usually leads to having to change more things.

by that I mean "MY" page. the page has 321 line of codes I though by posting just the function that I have problem with would simplify things for everyone.

next comment: Yes the $dbh=NULL; was uncommented only the description of what it does was commented.

Do yourself the favor of formatting your code sensibly. What you had in your post looked as if everything belonged to the function. If I hadn't gone to the trouble of formatting it for you, I'd have simply given you error corrections based on reading it wrong. Moreover, when you are asking for help, you are far less likely to get it if you post unformatted code.

I apologize for that, I am new at writing codes. For me it makes it a lot clearer to have the curly braces out in the open at the beginning of the line than having to look for it at the end of a command line. I read about the parent and child indentation, that was good.

I went out and checked to see if my connection was good to my db. I createda blank page with the include_once() database connection and performed a simple query to pull out the data that I am trying to get for my select box and I was able to pull it out no problem. there is something wrong with the function to insert it into the select box. I have started at the bottom of it by doing a var_dump() at every level where I would be expecting to see something being dumped but get nothing in $row or $list.