Question

I am getting data from a database and which is used to populate the select element (list) on my page.

The data stored with which it has two spaces in my DB: "ABC CDE".

When I put the value in the select list, it removes the other space, thus leaving it "ABC CDE". But every time I get the data and I log it, it still has two spaces.

The problem is that if I needlook up something in DB using the name does not return anything because of the difference in spaces.

$query = "SELECT * from Member.people";
 $logger->debug($query);
 $result = mysql_query($query);
 $num = mysql_num_rows($result);

 while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
      $op = $row['Name'];                    //ABC  DE
      echo '<option>'.$op.'</option>';       //ABC DE

 }

can someone help?

Answer 1

Consecutive white spaces in HTML are collapsed:

In particular, user agents should collapse input white space sequences when producing output inter-word space.

They are preserved in attributes though. You have to set the value attribute correctly and it will work:

echo '<option value="' . $op . '">'.$op.'</option>';

If you don’t do that the content of the elements is used as value:

This attribute specifies the initial value of the control. If this attribute is not set, the initial value is set to the contents of the OPTION element.

what, as you already noticed, will give you the value with only one space (as it is collapsed).