Simple drop down pre-set value question

Hi All

I am having a little problem with my forms (user fill out).

I have a form for users to fill out, input boxes, textareas, drop down boxes.

These values are transferred to php variables which i use to populate other feilds. The user can then re-select the form to make changes. This is ok in some cases and again i can use the varibles to set the value=$variable for the input boxes etc.

But for the drop down boxes i cant. The html codes uses the

<select name="cars">
<option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
<option value="saab">Saab</option>
<option value="fiat" selected="selected">Fiat</option>
<option value="audi">Audi</option>
</select>

Does this mean i have to put and if statement in each options, if variable == xxx then echo the selected code?

(also i have initally done this, and if no value is selected at all, its picks a answer anyways half way down the list)

Is this the only way to do this or can my error be solved?

Regards
Alex James

 

Do a switch statement.

$pre_select = ' selected="selected"';

switch ($_POST['cars']) {
	case "volvo" : $selected['volvo'] = $pre_select;
		break;
	case "saab" : $selected['saab'] = $pre_select;
		break;
	case "fiat" : $selected['fiat'] = $pre_select;
		break;
	case "audi" : $selected['audi'] = $pre_select;
		break;
}

echo "<select name=\"cars\">
<option value=\"volvo\"{$selected['volvo']}>Volvo</option>
<option value=\"saab\"{$selected['saab']}>Saab</option>
<option value=\"fiat\"{$selected['fiat']}>Fiat</option>
<option value=\"audi\"{$selected['audi']}>Audi</option>
</select>";

PHP:

 

Depending on how many cars he has, that could be a pretty large switch statement. Using a loop will enable you to add/remove cars from the dropdown & processing by adding/removing it from an array.

<?php

$options = array();
$dropDownFields = array('volvo', 'saab', 'fiat', 'audi');

foreach ($dropDownFields as $field) {
    $option    = "<option value=\"{$field}\" {selected}>" . ucfirst($field) . "</option>";
    $selected  = (strtolower($_POST['cars']) == strtolower($field)) ? 'selected="selected"' : '';
    $options[] = str_replace('{selected}', $selected, $option);
}

?>

<form name="foo">
    <select name="cars">
       <?php echo implode(PHP_EOL, $options); ?>
    </select>
</form>

PHP: