Why is the first section outputting data nd the 2nd is not?

I'm learning php and html on the fly, and I am stuck with the code below. The subject row outputs the "value=subject" from the database, but the Message row does not outout the "value=comment". I can echo the $comment variable, so it is there, but not in the Text Area field. I'm sure it's a simple coding error.

//-- Subject Row --
echo "<TR><TD>
<B>$ndx_eve_name</B></TD><TD>
<IMG SRC=\"q.gif\" ALT=\"$ndx_eve_desc\" title=\"$ndx_eve_desc\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
[COLOR="Red"]<INPUT TYPE=SUBJECT SIZE=40 NAME=\"subject\" value=\"$subject\">[/COLOR]
</TD><TD></TD></TR>";

// -- Message Row --
echo "<TR><TD>
<B>$ndx_msg</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC=\"q.gif\" ALT=\"$ndx_body\" title=\"$ndx_body\"></TD><TD></TD>
<TD><INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE=$ndx_save>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<IMG SRC=\"q.gif\" ALT=\"$ndx_clk&nbsp;$ndx_save&nbsp;$ndx_str\" title=\"$ndx_clk&nbsp;$ndx_save&nbsp;$ndx_str\">
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=\"3\">
[COLOR="red"]<TEXTAREA value=\"$comment\" NAME=\"comment\" COLS=\"70\" WRAP=hard ROWS=\"10\"></TEXTAREA>[/COLOR]
</TD></TR>

Code (markup):

 

You shouldnt do HTML and PHP in this way as its messy.
Some people chose to do it like this but i just think it creates more work than is necessary.
Do this:

?>
//-- Subject Row --
<TR><TD>
<B>$ndx_eve_name</B></TD><TD>
<IMG SRC="q.gif" ALT="$ndx_eve_desc" title="$ndx_eve_desc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<INPUT TYPE=SUBJECT SIZE=40 NAME="subject" value="<?php echo $subject; ?>">
</TD><TD></TD></TR>";

// -- Message Row --
<TR><TD>
<B>$ndx_msg</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="q.gif" ALT="$ndx_body" title="$ndx_body"></TD><TD></TD>
<TD><INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE=$ndx_save>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<IMG SRC="q.gif" ALT="$ndx_clk&nbsp;$ndx_save&nbsp;$ndx_str" title="$ndx_clk&nbsp;$ndx_save&nbsp;$ndx_str">
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN="3">
<TEXTAREA value="<?php echo $comment; ?>" NAME="comment" COLS="70" WRAP=hard ROWS="10"></TEXTAREA>
</TD></TR>
<?php
//more php code

Code (markup):

 

papa_face is right about making your code clean, but it still doesn't answer your question.

The biggest problem is that a textarea does not have a value property. The 'value' goes between the opening and closing textarea tags. So, based on papa_face's code, you want to change:

<TEXTAREA value="<?php echo $comment; ?>" NAME="comment" COLS="70" WRAP=hard ROWS="10"></TEXTAREA>

PHP:

to:

<TEXTAREA NAME="comment" COLS="70" WRAP=hard ROWS="10"><?php echo $comment; ?></TEXTAREA>

PHP:

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you both for the suggestions - fortunately I did not originally code this, but I probably should clean it up!

 

Glad TwistMyArm offered the solution. I kinda forgot about the actual problem you were having when I posted lol.