Loading Multiple Select Lists

Anon

I'm building a form that will contain multiple (40) select (drop down) lists. It's really five different lists placed eight different times. The list data resides in the database.

Is there any way to avoid placing 40 blocks of HTML code when building the lists on the page? Can I somehow dynamically create these drop down lists by reading directly from the database.

Mike
London, Canada

Anon

run a for loop for placing the block
<select>
<?
for(expr1; expr2 ; expr3) {
getting row variable in $variable
echo("<option>" . $variable . "</option>);
}
?>
</select>

sepodati

echo "<select>";
$result = mysql_query("SELECT value,option FROM your_table");
while(list($value,$option) = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
echo "<option value='$value'>$option</option>\n";
}
echo "</select>";

Adapt to your needs...

---John Holmes...

Anon

Thanks Fellas,

I guess the bottom line is there is no way to avoid 40 different blocks of HTML code, no matter how it's generated.

When I previewed the form as pure HTML code,(off my local drive)it required a refresh to make it all line-up.

My fear is that when my host server sends the HTML to a client it might lead to problems.

I thought through some miracle of PHP4 the drop down lists could be read from the tables without having to send out 40 <select> statements. The more I think of it the more I realize I wasn't being realistic.

Thanks for the help guys!!!!!!!!!

sepodati

Well it depends on how your data is organized and what is going to be in each select box. You could easily put my code within a FOR loop, loop it 40 times, and you've got 40 select boxes...all with 10 lines of code.

If each box is going to be different, you'll have to add some stuff of course. A good reason to use PHP is to take the repitition out of your HTML pages and use the code to create the repetition...

Explain more about your data and what's in each select box and someone can probably help you out...

---John Holmes...